"Ef they did," he answered, candidly, "I reckon hit would be hangin' or ther penitenshery fer me--but they hain't agoin' ter." "I don't seek ter hinder ye none," she told him in a faltering voice, "despite hit's goin' ter nigh kill me ter see ye go. Somehow hit seems like I wouldn't be so skeered ef ye war guilty yoreself ... but ter hev ye risk ther gallers fer somethin' ye didn't nuver do----" The words choked her and she stopped short. "I'm goin' ter hev a mouty strong reason fer seekin' ter come home safe," he said, softly. "But even ef hit did cost me my life, I don't see as I could fail a woman thet's my sister, an' thet's been facin' her time amongst enemies, with a secret like thet hauntin' her day an' night. I've got ter take ther chanst, honey." A sound came to them through their preoccupation, and they looked up to see Bas Rowlett crossing the stile. His case-hardened hypocrisy stood valiantly by him, and his face revealed nothing of the humiliation he must feel in playing out his farcical role of friendship before the eyes of the man to whom it was so transparent. "I war jest passin' by," he announced, "an I 'lowed I'd light down an' make my manners. I'd love ter hev a drink of water, too." Without a word Parish turned and went toward the well and the visitor's eyes lit again to their avid hunger as he gazed at the girl. Abruptly he declared: "Don't never fergit what I told ye, Dorothy. I'd do most anything, fer _you_." The girl made no answer, but she flushed under the intensity of his gaze, and to herself she said, as she had said once before: "I wonder would he do sich a thing fer me as Cal's doin' fer his sister?" The scope and peril of that sacrifice seemed to stand between her and all other thoughts. Then Parish came back with a gourd dipper, and forced himself for a few moments into casual conversation. Though to have intimated his purpose and destination would have been a fatal thing, it would have been almost as foolish to wrap in mystery the fact that he meant to make a short journey from home, so as Bas mounted Parish said: "I've got a leetle business acrost in Virginny, Bas, an' afore long I'm goin' over thar fer a few days." When Elviry Prooner had consented to come as temporary companion for Dorothy, it seemed merely an adventitious happening that Sim, too, felt the call of the road. "I don't know es I've named hit to ye afore, Parish," he volunteered the next day as the three sat around the dinner table, "but I've got a cousin thet used ter be more like a brother ter me--an' he got inter some leetle trouble." "Is thet so, Sim?" inquired Parish with a ready interest. "War hit a sore trouble?" "Hit couldn't skeercely be holped--but he's been sulterin' in ther penitenshery down thar at Frankfort fer nigh on ter two y'ars now. Erbout once in a coon's age I fares me down thar ter fotch him tidin's of his folks. Hit pleasures him."