But the old woman was wise in her generation. "Look heah, Ken Douglass," she indignantly stormed; "don't yuh try no hifalutin with me. I ain't goin' to be stood off with no such a bluff ez that! Who nussed yuh when yuh got shot up by this yeah very mizzuble outfit las' summeh? Yuh come along o' me without no moah talk. An' when yuh git theah yuh go down on yuh stubboahn knees to that little angel an' promise thet yuh'll be good." He laughed quizzically. "Is that one of the conditions she imposes--that getting down on my knees? I'm out of practice a little and my knees are all blacked up from that fire. I'm afraid I'd soil that immaculate carpet of hers." "Yuh hev soiled a heap moah than her cyapet already," said the old woman significantly, "an' yuh mind's been blacker than yuh knees. Did yuh think she was one o' them dance-hall huzzies yuh've been herdin' with all yuh mean life? An' up tha' she sits cryin'--" "Crying!" said the man sharply, and without another word he strode after the doddering old woman, who had knowingly turned even as she spoke. As he entered the living-room the girl rose with an involuntary cry. His hair, eyebrows and mustache had been badly singed, his face was smoke-grimed and dirty, great holes had been burned in the thin shirt, the flesh showing angrily red through the rents. He was in sharp contrast with her own white daintiness as he stood there grim and forbidding, but she thought she had never looked upon a manlier man. "I inferred from what Abbie said that you wished to see me?" The tone was cool and even but respectful. "Yes--I wished--I thought--" she faltered incoherently, looking appealingly at him. But he only waited impassively, and the girl nervously clasped her hands. "Tongue burned too?" snapped Abigail, with withering sarcasm, glowering wrathfully at him; the girl went up to him quickly, her eyes luminous with compassion. "Oh! You are injured--you are suffering--I did not know--" "It is nothing--merely a few slight scorches. Pray do not be concerned about it. And I am glad to assure you that McVey will recover. The bullet--" At the white terror which crept into the girl's face he stopped abruptly, clipping the words between his teeth and cursing his inadvertence. "The bullet--McVey--I do not understand," she was wild-eyed now with fear and her voice was very faint. Old Abigail with an incredibly quick movement caught her around the waist. "Sit down, honey, and we'll tell you about it. There! Thet's a dear. Matlock an' one uv his critters fired the haystacks an' cut the ditches so's Ken wouldn't hev no water to save 'em with. An' Red he see one uv 'em ridin' off an' runs him down an' shoots him up right! But the ornary cuss shoots back an' Red gets it in ther laig an' thet's all they is to it. Don't yuh worrit none; we only lost thu leetlest stack o' ther bunch." "And the other--the one who ran away?" asked the girl with quick concern.