“I seed a vision last night, and thar's trouble a-comin' in these mountains. The Lord told me so straight from the clouds. These railroads and coal-mines is a-goin' to raise taxes, so that a pore man'll have to sell his hogs and his corn to pay 'em an' have nothin' left to keep him from starvin' to death. Them police-fellers over thar at the Gap is a-stirrin' up strife and a-runnin' things over thar as though the earth was made fer 'em, an' the citizens ain't goin' to stand it. An' this war's a-comin' on an' thar'll be shootin' an' killin' over thar an' over hyeh. I seed all this devilment in a vision last night, as shore as I'm settin' hyeh.” Old Judd grunted, shifted his huge shoulders, parted his mustache and beard with two fingers and spat through them. “Well, I reckon you didn't see no devilment. Red, that you won't take a hand in, if it comes.” The other men laughed, but the Red Fox looked meek and lowly. “I'm a servant of the Lord. He says do this, an' I does it the best I know how. I goes about a-preachin' the word in the wilderness an' a-healin' the sick with soothin' yarbs and sech.” “An' a-makin' compacts with the devil,” said old Judd shortly, “when the eye of man is a-lookin' t'other way.” The left side of the Red Fox's face twitched into the faintest shadow of a snarl, but, shaking his head, he kept still. “Well,” said Sam Barth, who was thin and long and sandy, “I don't keer what them fellers do on t'other side o' the mountain, but what air they a-comin' over here fer?” Old Judd spoke again. “To give you a job, if you wasn't too durned lazy to work.” “Yes,” said the other man, who was dark, swarthy and whose black eyebrows met across the bridge of his nose--“and that damned Hale, who's a-tearin' up Hellfire here in the cove.” The old man lifted his eyes. Young Dave's face wore a sudden malignant sympathy which made June clench her hands a little more tightly. “What about him? You must have been over to the Gap lately--like Dave thar--did you git board in the calaboose?” It was a random thrust, but it was accurate and it went home, and there was silence for a while. Presently old Judd went on: “Taxes hain't goin' to be raised, and if they are, folks will be better able to pay 'em. Them police-fellers at the Gap don't bother nobody if he behaves himself. This war will start when it does start, an' as for Hale, he's as square an' clever a feller as I've ever seed. His word is just as good as his bond. I'm a-goin' to sell him this land. It'll be his'n, an' he can do what he wants to with it. I'm his friend, and I'm goin' to stay his friend as long as he goes on as he's goin' now, an' I'm not goin' to see him bothered as long as he tends to his own business.” The words fell slowly and the weight of them rested heavily on all except on June. Her fingers loosened and she smiled. The Red Fox rose, shaking his head. “All right, Judd Tolliver,” he said warningly. “Come in and git something to eat, Red.”