"Come, Phoebe. Come, Dr. Hume," she said, and the others gathered around the lunch cloth. Mr. Lupo lifted his sodden, bloodshot eyes at the word "Phoebe," and saw with astonishment the young girl, whom Billie knew the couple hated, now drinking tea and mingling on equal terms with the people of Sunrise Camp. His eyes narrowed into little slits. After choking down the sandwiches greedily, he stalked over into their midst. "What have you done with my wife?" he demanded. "We know nothing of your wife, Lupo," answered Dr. Hume, who knew all about the couple by this time. "You had better go on now, if you have had enough food." "I don't want any more of your cursed food," answered Lupo, looking very much like his namesake, the wolf, at that moment. "But I tell you if you've given my wife money to leave me, you will have to pay for it in another coin." "Nobody has ever given your wife any money. She has never been back since the day she threatened Miss Campbell with a carving knife. If anybody has driven her away, it's you, with your drunken, low habits." Lupo moved a step nearer and pointed his thumb at Phoebe. "So you're trying to make a lady of her, are you?" Phoebe took not the slightest notice. She was watching the antics of a squirrel leaping in the branches of a giant oak tree, but she turned her eyes gratefully toward Billie, when that young woman burst out with: "She is a lady and my friend. I think you'd better go now, Mr. Lupo." "Whoever meddles with those two shall pay for it," cried the man fiercely, just as Ben seized him by the collar and flung him into a thicket of bushes, from where he presently crawled away out of sight, occasionally pausing to shake his fist in their direction. "A nice return for hospitality," exclaimed Billie. "He's a dangerous fellow," said the doctor. "But I imagine he's mostly talk. What do you know of him, Miss Phoebe?" "I only know that years ago they tried to drive us away from our house. But an old man who lived with us, protected us. He owned the cabin and he left it to father and me. There was a will that made it ours. It became a home." They smiled at her quaint expression. "And the Lupos have been turned against us always, but God has protected us from our enemies." They looked at her silently. It was impossible not to feel deeply impressed with the earnestness of her tone. Billie felt ashamed. With all her advantages and the opportunities money and travel had brought her, Phoebe, raised in a cabin on the mountain side, had learned something she had not. Presently she went over and sat beside the mysterious girl. "I wish you would teach me a few things, Phoebe. I feel that I am very ignorant." "But I have never been to school," replied Phoebe in astonishment. "There are some things one doesn't learn at school," answered Billie. CHAPTER X. ALBERDINA SCHOENBACHLER "You no lig I shall dos clothes coog?" asked Alberdina, the Monday after her arrival.