his arms and indulged in violent language, the gist of which the Cap'n
did not catch. He ran to the fence when the second accosted him, tore
off a picket, and flung it after the fleeing man.

Then he sat down and pondered more deeply still.

He cast occasional glances toward the house, and once or twice arose
as though to come in. But he sat down and continued to gaze in the
direction of Pharlina Pike's house.

It was late in the afternoon when a woman came hurrying down the slope
through the maple-sugar grove. The Cap'n, at his curtain with his
keen sea eye, saw her first. He had been expecting her arrival. He
knew her in the distance for Pharlina Pike, and realized that she
had come hot-foot across lots.

Sproul was under the big maple as soon as she.

"For mercy sakes, Colonel Gid," she gasped, "come over to my house
as quick's you can!"

She had come up behind him, and he leaped out of his chair with a
snap like a jack-in-the-box.

"There's somethin' on, and I knowed it!" he squalled. "What be them
men peradin' past here to your house for, and tellin' me it ain't
none of my business? You jest tell me, Pharline Pike, what you mean
by triflin' in this way?"

"Lord knows what it's all about! I don't!" she quavered.