The railroad man scowled and recovered his dignity, or some portion of it. "You're a hospitable lot," he said, moving off toward the driveway. "You can tell the old maniac he'll hear from us later." Pettigrass stooped with his back to the portico and patted the dog. "Don't you look so shuck up, little one," he whispered reassuringly to Ardea. "There ain't nothin' goin' to happen, worse than has happened, I reckon." But Ardea was mute. When the engineer had mounted and ridden away down the pike, the foreman straightened himself and faced about. The Major had dropped into his big arm-chair and was trying to relight his pipe. But his hands shook and the match went out. Pettigrass moved nearer and spoke so that the child should not hear. "If you run me off the place the nex' minute, I'm goin' to tell you you ort to be tolerably 'shamed of yourse'f, Maje' Dabney. That po' little gal is scared out of a year's growin', right now." "I know, Japheth; I know. I'm a damned old heathen! For, insultin' as he was, the man was for the time bein' my guest, suh--my guest!" "I'm talkin' about the little one--not that railroader. So far as I know, he earned what he got. I allowed they'd make some sort of a swap with you, so I didn't say anything when they was layin' out their lines thoo' the hawss-lot and across the lower corn-field this mornin'--easy, now; no more r'arin' and t'arin' with that thar little gal not a-knowin' which side o' the earth's goin' to cave in next!" The Major dropped his pipe, laid fast hold of the arms of his chair, and breathed hard. "Laid out _theyuh_ lines--across _my_ prope'ty? Japheth, faveh me by riding down to the furnace and askin' Caleb Gordon if he will do me the honor to come up heah--this evenin', if he can. I--I--it's twenty yeahs and mo' since I've troubled the law cou'ts of ouh po', Yankee-ridden country with any affai-ah of mine; and now--well, I don't know--I don't know," with a despondent shake of the leonine head. After Pettigrass had gone on his errand the Major rose and went unsteadily into the house. Then, and not till then, Ardea got up on her knees and put her arms around the neck of the Great Dane. "O, Hector!" she whispered; "me, I am Dabney, too! Once the gamins killed a poor little cat of mine; and I forgot God--the good God--and said wicked things; and I could have torn them into little, little pieces! But we--we shall be very good and patient after this, won't we, Hector--you and me--no, you and _I_? What is it when you lick my face that way? Does it mean that you understand?" VI BLUE BLOOD AND RED In a world full of puzzling questions for Thomas Jefferson, one of the chief clustering points of the persistent "whys" was Major Dabney's attitude, as a Man of Sin, and as the natural overlord of Paradise Valley.