outfit was too much of a catapult to be stopped. Through the gate
it went, and the wagon roared away through the bridge, the driver
yelling oaths behind him.

Cap'n Aaron Sproul walked out and strolled among the scattered debris,
kicking it gloomily to right and left. The woman followed him.

"It was awful," she half sobbed.

"So you're Miss Jane Ward, be ye?" he growled, glancing at her from
under his knotted eyebrows. "Speakin' of your pets, I should reckon
that 'ere brother of yourn wa'n't one that you had tamed down fit
to be turned loose. But you tell him for me, the next time you see
him, that I'll plug the end of that bridge against him if it takes
ev'ry dum cent of the prop'ty I'm wuth--and that's thutty thousand
dollars, if it's a cent. I ain't none of your two-cent chaps!" he
roared, visiting his wrath vicariously on her as a representative
of the family. "I've got money of my own. Your brother seems to have
made door-mats out'n most of the folks round here, but I'll tell ye
that he's wiped his feet on me for the last time. You tell him that,
dum him!"

Her face was white, and her eyes were shining as she looked at him.

"Gideon has always had his own way, Cap'n Sproul," she faltered. "I
hope you won't feel too bitter against him. It would be awful--he
so headstrong--and you so--so--brave!" She choked this last out,
unclasping her hands.

"Well, I ain't no coward, and I never was," blurted the Cap'n.