God had heard and answered her. One wild leap in the air, and the sound of tearing clothes as her already tattered skirt came in contact with the barbed wire--and Tess was crouching down in the safe-keeping of the brindle bull. The dog whirled frantically around, licking her face. Fear weakened her tongue--she could not speak--only little spasmodic sobs burst from the parted lips. She caught the huge dog to her breast and waited. Ben Letts was on the tracks; she could hear his big chest heaving with fast-coming breath. He halted on the other side of the fence. Pete scented an enemy and straightened out his strong muscles like whip cords, a hoarse growl coming from between his jaws. Ben leaned over the fence with an oath. "Ye'd better come away from him," he grunted threateningly. "Ye air thinking the brute can save ye--but I'll put a bullet through his pate." Tessibel knew that the man had no rifle with him; and by the time he could get one she and the dog would be far away. Her mind worked fast under the pressure. "What do you want, Ben Letts?" she demanded. "I just wanted to talk to yer," wheedled the man. "Come over the fence, will ye?" "Ye can talk to me here," sullenly replied Tess. "I don't want to hear none of yer dum gab." "It air somethin' nice--it air candy," feigned Ben. Then the tones hardened in the coarse voice, and he ended: "Ye can't stay always with the brute." "To-night I can, and in the day I ain't afeared--I don't want no candy." The brindle bulldog lifted his head again and sent a low snarl in the direction of the fisherman--Ben in his rage had come too close to the fence. The animal's warning sent him back. Months before, Pete had buried his teeth in the man's hand and Ben would bear the marks to his grave. "Ye go home, Ben Letts," insisted Tess. "Ye ain't no business here. Go home to yer mammy." "I'm a-goin' to stay, just the same," rejoined Ben, sitting down upon the tracks. Tessibel wound her arms around the dog's neck, banking the red curls under her cheek for a pillow. It was good to rest with her friend. Between the fence wires she could see the branches of the pine tree, its shadowy arms creating odd figures across the light streaks in the sky. What a wonderful being the student's God was! He had listened to the cry of a squatter and had saved her. "Yer daddy ain't a-comin' home," Ben Letts broke in upon her meditations. "He air," retorted Tess. "He air the nextest time I go for him." "It air a lie," insisted the fisherman, "ye comes with me to the minister and I'll make yer an hones' woman. Ye'll have to cut that mop and settle down like a woman should. Do ye hear?... Tessibel, I says an hones' woman!" Tessibel shifted her head from Pete's neck and sat up. "Ye says as how--ye and--me--will go to the minister?" "Yep." "And we air to be--married ... eh?" "Yep." "How about--the--brat--and--and--and Satisfied's girl?" Myra's secret had slipped from her. Ben's silence invited her to proceed.