first hundred years that are the hardest to get through with and he's
gettin' away with 'em."

"He knows something, Ben."

"So do we, or think we do. So does Brodie, it would seem. Does old
Honeycutt know any more than the rest of us?"

"We are all young men compared with Loony Honeycutt, all
Johnny-come-lately youngsters. Gus Ingle and his crowd, as near as we
can figure, came to grief in the winter of 1853. By old Honeycutt's own
count he would have been a wild young devil of seventeen then. And
remember he was one of the roaring crowd that made the country what it
was after '49. He knows where the old cabin was on Lookout; he swears he
knows who built it in that same winter of '53. And----"

"And," cut in Gaynor, "if you believe the murderous old rascal, he knows
with sly, intimate knowledge how and why the man in the lone cabin was
killed. All in that same winter of '53!"

King pricked up his ears.

"I didn't know that. What does he say?"

"He talks on most subjects pretty much at random. He knows that the
sheriff only laughs at him, since who would want to snatch the old
derelict away from his mountains after all these years and try to fix a
crime of more than half a century ago on him? But as the law laughs and
at least pretends to disbelieve, his pride is hurt. So he has grown into
the way of wild boasting. You ought to hear him talk about the affair at