"Nay, I dislike to be hurried." And Norton calmly pulled out his pipe. He was angry, but it showed only in his narrowed eyes. "Now our mutual friend, Colonel Boone, seems to have an idea that Abel Grigg is not your father, sweet Kitty. I confess that the same thought has come to me, since seeing him. Have you any coals inside?" She stamped her foot, half in anger and half in dismay. "Good lack, sir, will you not be gone?" "Not until you fetch me a coal, at all events." She looked at him, read determination in his face, and with an impatient gesture ran to the cabin door and vanished inside. After a moment she appeared with a brand in her fingers, evidently pulled from the fire inside. Smiling, he took it and set it to his pipe. "Ah, that is better! Now, Kitty, as to your birth: Do you know anything of your mother?" He fully expected fresh expostulation from her; instead, she nodded quietly. "Yes, though I do not conceive your right to question me, sir." "My right is the interest of a gentleman," he said gravely, and she flushed. "May I ask who your mother was?" "I--I do not know her name," stammered the girl, helpless wonder in her eyes. "Her initials were H.E.M., but my father never speaks of her." "You mean, Abel Grigg never speaks of her," corrected Norton. A new anger flashed into the girl's face. "Oh, you are insufferable!" she cried bitterly. "I have tried to help you, and your impertinent curiosity----" "Nay, Kitty, it is only the interest of a gentleman, as I said before," smiled Norton, "Still, you are right. My curiosity is impertinent, it may be, and if you were not the fairest maid I think I have ever seen, perhaps my interest in you would be less. Frankly, I expect to return to this vicinity before a great while, and shall look forward to seeing you again. But tell me, please--how is it that you know your mother's initials, but not her name?" She looked at him for a long moment, divided between anger at his cool insistence and comprehension of the iron will behind his gentle courtesy. Her hand went to her dress. "Because of this. It used to be my mother's, father has said----" She laid a pin in his hand, and Norton stared down at it in rank incredulity. He turned it over and saw the graven initials on the back, "H.E.M." Then, reaching inside his buckskin coat, he brought out its duplicate and laid it beside the other. Both pins were identical--a small golden eagle, with half-obliterated enamel. "By thunder!" said Norton very softly, "Kitty, do you know what this is?" "No--a pin, that's all," she looked up at him, perplexed. He turned over his own pin, showing her the twined initials graven there, "C.N.--E.D."