After another stretch ridden in silence they turned up a little cove to a
light shining in a cabin window. The brothers alighted and Dave helped
the girl down. He pushed open the door and led the way inside.

A man sat by the fireside with his feet on the table. He was reading a
newspaper. A jug of whiskey and a glass were within reach of his hand.
Without troubling to remove his boots from the table, he looked up with a
leer at the trembling girl.

Dave spoke at once. "We'll git it over with. The sooner the quicker."

'Lindy's heart was drenched with dread. She shrank from the three pairs
of eyes focused upon her as if they had belonged to wolves. She had hoped
that the preacher might prove a benevolent old man, but this man with the
heavy thatch of unkempt, red hair and furtive eyes set askew offered no
comfort. If there had been a single friend of her family present, if
there had been any woman at all! If she could even be sure of the man she
was about to marry!

It seemed to her that the preacher was sneering when he put the questions
to which she answered quaveringly. Vaguely she felt the presence of some
cruel, sinister jest of which she was the sport.

After the ceremony had been finished the three men drank together while
she sat white-faced before the fire. When at last Ranse Roush and the
red-headed preacher left the cabin, both of them were under the influence
of liquor. Dave had drunk freely himself.

'Lindy would have given her hopes of heaven to be back safely in the