Stetsons, into the boy's duties, and nobody dared question him.
Even old Gabe jested no longer. The matter was too serious.

Meanwhile the winter threw off the last slumbrous mood of
autumn, as a sleeper starts from a dream. A fortnight was gone,
and still no message came from the absent leader. One shore was
restive, uneasy; the other confident, mocking. Between the two,
Rome Stetson waited his chance at the mill.

VIII.

DAY was whitening on the Stetson shore. Across the river the air
was still sharp with the chill of dawn, and the mists lay like flocks
of sheep under shelter of rock and crag. A peculiar cry radiated
from the Lewallen cabin with singular resonance on the crisp
air-the mountain cry for straying cattle. A soft low came from a
distant patch of laurel, and old Jasper's girl, Martha, folded. her
hands like a conch at her mouth, and the shrill cry again startled
the air.

Ye better come, ye pieded cow-brute." Picking up a cedar piggin,
she stepped from the porch toward the meek voice that had
answered her. Temper and exertion had brought the quick blood
to her face. Her head was bare, her thick hair was loosely coiled,
and her brown arms were naked almost to the shoulder. At the
stable a young mountaineer was overhauling his riding-gear.

Air you goin' to ride the hoss to-day, Jas?" she asked, querulously.

"That's jes whut I was aimin' to do. I'm a-goin' to town."