There were five days of terrific storm.  Truedale and Nella-Rose had fought to save White’s live stock-even his cabin itself; for the deluge had attacked that while leaving safe the smaller cabin near by.  All one morning they had worked gathering debris and placing it so that it turned the course of a rapid stream that threatened the larger house.  It had been almost a lost hope, but as the day wore on the torrent lessened, the rough barrier held-they were successful!  The gate and snake-fence were carried away, but the rest was saved!

In the strenuous labour, in the dangerous isolation, the ordinary things of life lost their importance.  With death facing them their love and companionship were all that were left to them and neither counted the cost.  But on the sixth day the sun shone, the flood was past, and with safety and the sure coming of Jim White at hand, they sat confronting each other in a silence new and potent.

“Sweetheart, you must go-for a few hours!”

Truedale bent across the table that separated them and took her clasped hands in his.  He had burned all his social bridges, but poor Nella-Rose’s progress through life had not been made over anything so substantial as bridges.  She had proceeded by scrambling down and up primitive obstacles; she felt that at last she had come to her Land of Promise.

“You are going to send me-away?  Where?”

“Only until White returns, little girl.  See here, dear, you and I are quite gloriously mad, but others are stupidly sane and we’ve got to think of them.”

Truedale was talking over her head, but already Nella-Rose accepted this as a phase of their new relations.  A mountain man might still love his woman even if he beat her and, while Nella-Rose would have scorned the suggestion that she was a mountain woman, she did seriously believe that men were different from women and that was the end of the matter!

“You run along, small girl of mine-the skies are clear, the sun warm-but I want you to meet me at three o’clock at the spot where the trail joins the road.  I will be there and I will wait for you.”

“But why?-why?” The blue-gray eyes were troubled.

“Sweetheart, we’re going to find that minister of yours if we have to travel from one end of the hills to the other!”

“But we-all are married!” This with a little gasp.  “Back on the hill, when you told God and said He understood; then we-all were married.”

“And so we were, my sweet, no minister could make you more mine than you already are, but the others-your people.  Should they try to separate us they might cause trouble and the minister can make it impossible for any one to take you away from my love and care.”

And at that moment Truedale actually believed what he said.  In his heart he had always been a rebel-defiant and impotent.  He had, in this instance, proved his theories; but he did not intend to leave loose ends that might endanger the safety of others-of this young girl, most of all.  He was only going to carry out his original plans for her safety-not his own.  After the days just past-days of anxiety, relief, and the proving of his love and hers-no doubt remained in Truedale’s heart; he was of the hills, now and forever!

No one can-now!” This came passionately from Nella-Rose as she watched him.

“They might make trouble until they found that out.  They’re too free with their guns.  There’s a lot to explain, little doney-gal.”  Conning smiled down her doubts.

“Until three o’clock!” Nella-Rose pouted, “that’s a right long time.  But I’ll-just run along.  Always and always I’m going to do what you say!” Already his power over her was absolute.  She put her arms out with a happy, wilful gesture and Truedale held her closer.

“Only until three, sweetheart.”

Nella-Rose drew herself away and turned to pick up her little shawl and hat from the couch by the fire; she was just reaching for her basket, when a shadow fell across the floor.  Truedale and the girl turned and confronted-Jim White!  What he had seen and heard-who could tell from his expressionless face and steady voice?  The door had been on the latch and he had come in!

“Mail, and truck, and rabbits!” he explained, tossing his load upon the table.  Then he turned toward Truedale as if noticing him for the first time.

“How-de?” he said.  Finally his gaze shifted to Nella-Rose and seemed to burn into her soul.

“Goin’, p’r’aps, or-comin’?” he questioned.

“I-I am-going!” Fright and dismay marked the girl’s voice.  Truedale went toward her.  The covert brutality in White’s words shocked and angered him.  He gave no thought to the cause, but he resented the insult.

“Wait!” he commanded, for Nella-Rose was gone through the open door.  “Wait!”

Seeing that she had for the moment escaped him, Truedale turned to White and confronted him with clear, angry eyes.

“What have you got to say for yourself?” he demanded fiercely.

The shock had been tremendous for Jim.  Three weeks previously he had left his charge safe and alone; he had come back and found-But shock always stiffened Jim White; that was one reason for his success in life.  He was never so inflexible and deadly self-possessed as he was when he could not see the next step ahead.

“Gawd, but I’m tired!” he said, when he had stared at Truedale as long as he cared to, “I’m going over to my place to turn in.  Seems like I’ll sleep for a month once I get started.”

“You don’t go, White, until you explain what you meant by-

But Truedale mistook his man.  Jim, having drawn his own conclusion, laughed and strode toward the door.

“I go when I’m damned pleased ter go!” he flung out derisively, “and I come the same way, young feller.  There’s mail for yo’ in the sack and-a telegram.”  White paused by the door a moment while Truedale picked the yellow envelope from the bag and tore it open.

     “Your uncle died suddenly on the 16th.  Come at once.  Vitally
     important.  McPHERSON.”

For a moment both men forgot the thing that had driven them wide apart.

“Bad news?” asked the sheriff.

Something was happening to Truedale-he felt as if the effect of some narcotic were losing its power; the fevered unreality was giving place to sensation but the brain was recording it dully.

“What date is this?” he asked, dazed.

“Twenty-fifth,” Jim replied as he moved out of the door.

“When can I get a train from the station?”

“There’s one as leaves anywhere ’twixt nine and ten ter-night.”

“That gives me time to pack.  See here, White, while it isn’t any of your business, I want to explain a thing or two-before I go.  I’ll be back as soon as I can-in a week or ten days at furthest.  When I return I intend to stay on, probably for the rest of my life.”

White still held Truedale by the cold, steely gleam of his eyes which was driving lucidity home to the dulled brain.  By a power as unyielding as death Jim was destroying the screen Truedale had managed to raise against the homely codes of life and was leaving his guest naked and exposed.

The shock of the telegram-the pause it evolved-had given Truedale time to catch the meaning of White’s attitude; now that he realized it, he knew he must lay certain facts open-he could not wait until his return.

Presently Jim spoke from outside the door.

“I ain’t settin’ up for no critic.  I ain’t by nater a weigher or trimmer and I don’t care a durn for what ain’t my business.  When I see my business I settle it in my own way!”-there was almost a warning in this.  “I’m dead tired, root and branch.  I’m goin’ ter take a bite an’ turn in.  I may sleep a couple o’ days; put off yo’ ‘splainifyin’ ’til yo’ come back ter end yo’ days.  Take the mare an’ leave her by the trail; she’ll come home.  Tell old Doc McPherson I was askin’ arter him.”

By that time Jim had ceased scorching his way to Truedale’s soul and was on the path to his own cabin.

“Looks like yo’ had a tussle with the storm,” he remarked.  “Any livin’ thing killed?”

“No.”

“Thank yo’!” Then, as if determined not to share any further confidence, White strode on.

For a moment Truedale stood and stared after his host in impotent rage.  Was Jim White such a lily of purity that he presumed to take that attitude?  Was the code of the hills that of the Romany gypsies?  How dare any man judge and sentence another without trial?

The effect of the narcotic still worked sluggishly, now that White’s irritating presence was removed.  Truedale shrugged his shoulders and turned to his packing.  He was feverishly eager to get to Nella-Rose.  Before nightfall she would be his before the world; in two weeks he would be back; the future would shame White and bring him to his senses.  Jim had a soft heart; he was just, in his brutal fashion.  When he understood how matters were, he would feel like the fool he was-a fool willing to cast a man off, unheard!  But Truedale blamed himself for the hesitation that meant so much.  The telegram-his fear of making a wrong step-had caused the grave mistake that could not be righted now.

At two o’clock Truedale started-on Jim’s mare!  White’s cabin had all the appearance of being barred against intrusion.  Truedale did not mean to test this, but it hurt him like a blow.  However, there was nothing to do but remedy, as soon as possible, the error he had permitted to arise.  No man on earth could make Nella-Rose more his than his love and good faith had made her, still he was eager now to resort to all the time-honoured safeguards before he left.  Once married he would go with a heart almost light.  He would confide everything to Kendall and Lynda-at least he would his marriage-and urge them to return with him to the hills, and after that White and all the others would have an awakening.  The possibility thus conceived was like a flood of light and sweet air in a place dark and bewildering but not evil-no, not that!

As he turned from the clearing Truedale looked back at his cabin.  Nella-Rose seemed still there.  She would always be part of it just as she was now part of his life.  He would try and buy the cabin-it would be sacrilege for others to enter!

So he hurried the mare on, hoping to be at the crossing before Nella-Rose.

The crisp autumn air was redolent of pines and the significance of summer long past.  It had a physical and spiritual power.

Then turning suddenly from the trail, Truedale saw Nella-Rose sitting on a rock-waiting!  She had on a rough, mannish-looking coat, and a coarse, red hood covered her bright head.  Nella-Rose was garbed in winter attire.  She had worn this outfit for five years and it looked it.

Never again was Truedale to see a face of such radiant joy and trust as the girl turned upon him.  Her eyes were wide and filled with a light that startled him.  He jumped from the horse and took her in his arms.

“What is it?” he asked, fearing some intangible danger.

“The minister was killed by the flood!” Nella-Rose’s tones were thrilling.  “He was going through Devil-may-come Hollow and a mighty big rock struck him and-he’s dead!”

“Then you must come with me, Nella-Rose.”  Truedale set his lips grimly; there was no time to lose.  Between three and nine o’clock surely they could locate a minister or a justice of the peace.  “Come!”

“But why, Mister Man?” She laughed up at him.  “Where?”

“It doesn’t matter.  To New York if necessary.  Jump up!” He turned to the horse, holding the girl close.

“Me go away-in this?  Me shame you before-them-all?”

Nella-Rose stood her ground and throwing the rough coat back displayed her shabby, shrunken dress.

“I went home-they-all were away.  I got my warm things, but I have a white dress and a pink ribbon-I’ll get them to-morrow.  Then-But why must we go-away?”

For the first time this thought caught her-she had been whirled along too rapidly before to note it.

“I have had word that my uncle is dead.  I must go at once, my dear, and you-you must come with me.  Would you let a little thing like a-a dress weigh against our love, and honour?”

Above the native’s horror of being dragged from her moorings was that subtle understanding of honour that had come to Nella-Rose by devious ways from a source that held it sacred.

“Honour?” she repeated softly; “honour?  If I thought I had to go in rags to make you sure; if I thought I needed to-I’d-

Truedale saw his mistake.  Realizing that if in the little time yet his he made her comprehend, he might lose more than he could hope to gain, he let her free while he took a card and pen from his pocket.  He wrote clearly and exactly his address, giving his uncle’s home as his.

“Nella-Rose,” he said calmly, “I shall be back in two or three weeks at the latest, but if at any moment you want me, send word here-telegraph from the station-you come first, always!  You are wiser than I, my sweet; our honour and love are our own.  Wait for me, my doney-gal and-trust me.”

She was all joy again-all sweetness.  He kissed her, turned, then came back.

“Where will you go, my darling?” he asked.

“Since they-all do not know”-she was lying against his breast, her eyes heavy now with grief at the parting-“I reckon I will go home-to wait.”

Solemnly Truedale kissed her and turned dejectedly away.  Once again he paused and looked back.  She stood against the tree, small and shabby, but the late afternoon sun transfigured her.  In the gloomy setting of the woods, that fair, little face shone like a gleaming star and so Truedale remembered her and took her image with him on his lonely way.

Nella-Rose watched him out of sight and then she turned and did something that well might make one wonder if a wise God or a cruel demon controls our fates-she ran away from the home path and took the trail leading far back to the cabin of old Lois Ann!

There was safety; there were compassion and comprehension.  The old woman could tell marvellous tales and so could beguile the waiting days.  Nella-Rose meant to confide in her and ask her to hide her until Truedale came for her.  It was a sudden inspiration and it brought relief.

And that night-it was past midnight and cold as the north land-Burke Lawson came face to face with Jed Martin!  Lawson was issuing from his cranny behind the old still and Martin was nosing about alone.  He, like a hungry thing of the wilds, had found his foe’s trail and meant to bag him unaided and have full vengeance and glory.  But so unexpectedly, and alarmingly unconcerned, did Burke materialize in the emptiness that Jed’s gun was a minute too late in getting into position.  Lawson had the drop on him!  They were both very quiet for a moment, then Lawson laughed and did it so boldly that Jed shrank back.

“Coming to make a friendly call, Martin?”

“Something like that!”

“Well, come in, come right in!”

“I reckon you an’ me can settle what we’ve got ter settle in the open!” Jed stuttered.  It seemed a hideous, one-sided settlement.

“As yo’ please, Jed, as yo’ please.  I have a leanin’ to the open myself.  I’d just decided ter come out; I was going up ter Jim White’s and help him mete out justice, but maybe you and me can save him the trouble.”

“You-goin’ ter shoot me, Burke-like a-like a-hedgehog?”

“No.  I’m goin’ ter do unto yo’ as yo’ would have-” Here Burke laughed-he was enjoying himself hugely.

“What yo’ mean?”

Well, Im goin ter put yer in my quarters and tie yer to a chair.  Yoll be able to wiggle out in time, but it will take yer long enough fur me to do what Im set about doin.  Yo torn down traitor!-yo were lowing to put me behind bars, wasnt yer?  Yo meant to let outsiders take the life out o me-yo’ skunk!  Well, instead, Jed-I’m goin’ on my weddin’ trip-me and lil’ Nella-Rose.  I’ve seen her; she done promised to have me, when I come out o’ hidin’.  I’m coming out now!  Nella-Rose an’ me are goin’ to find a bigger place than Pine Cone Settlement.  Yo’ll wiggle yer blasted hide loose by mornin’ maybe; but then her an’ me’ll be where you-all can’t ketch us!  Go in there, now, you green lizard; turn about an’ get on yer belly like the crawlin’ thing yo’ are!  That’s it-go! the way opens up.”

Jed was crawling through the bushes, Lawson after him with levelled gun.  “Now, then, take a seat an’ make yerself ter home!” Jed got to the chair and turned a green-white face upon his tormentor.

“Yer goin’ ter let me starve here?” he asked with shaking voice.

“That depends on yo’ power to wiggle.  See, I tie you so!” Lawson had pounced upon Jed and had him pinioned.  “I ain’t goin’ ter turn a key on yer like yo’ was aimin’ ter do on me!  It’s up to yo’ an’ yer wigglin’ powers, when yo’ get free.  The emptier yer belly is, the more room ye’ll have fer wiggling.  God bless yer! yer dog-gone hound!  Bless yer an’-curse yer!  I’m off-with the doney-gal!”

And off he was-he and his cruel but gay laugh.

There was no fire in the cave-like place; no light but the indirect moonlight which slanted through the opening.  It was death or wiggle for Jed Martin-so he wiggled!

In the meantime, Burke headed for Jim White’s.  He meant to play a high game there-to fling himself on White’s mercy-appeal to the liking he knew the sheriff had for him-confess his love for Nella-Rose-make his promise for future redemption and then go, scot-free, to claim the girl who had declared he might speak when once again he dared walk upright among his fellows.  So Lawson planned and went bravely to the doing of it.