The woman nodded and went briskly about putting the supper on the
table. While they ate Mr. Curtis told about Reno stopping the train,
and of the search for and recovery of the injured Cameron boy. All the
time Ruth, who sat sideways to the canopied bed, realized that the
curtains at the foot were drawn apart just a crack and that two very
bright, pin-point eyes were watching her. So interested did these eyes
become as the story progressed, and Ruth answered questions, that more
of Mercy Curtis' face was revealed-- a sharp, worn little face, with a
peaked chin and pale, thin cheeks.

Ruth was very tired when supper was ended and the kind Mrs. Curtis
suggested that she go to bed and obtain a good night's rest if she was
to walk to the Red Mill in the morning. But even when she bade her
entertainers good-night she did not see the child in the canopy bed
and she felt diffident about asking Mrs. Curtis about her. The young
traveler slept soundly-- almost from the moment her head touched the
pillow. Yet her last thought was of Uncle Jabez. He had been in town
some time before the train on which she arrived was due and had driven
away from the station with his mules, Mr. Curtis said. Had he driven
over that dark and dangerous road on which Tom Cameron met with his
accident, and had he run down the injured boy, or forced him over the
bank of the deep gully where they had found Tom lying unconscious?

"It was Jabe Potter-- he did it," the injured lad had murmured, and
these words were woven in the pattern of Ruth's dreams all night.

The little cottage was astir early and Ruth was no laggard. She came
down to breakfast while the sun was just peeping above the house-tops
and as she entered the sitting room she found an occupant at last in