"Are you the daughter of Dave Tolliver?"

"Yes."

"Then you've got a brother named Dave?"

"Yes." This, then, was the sister of the black-haired boy he had
seen in the Lonesome Cove.

"Haven't you got some kinfolks over the mountain?"

"Yes, I got an uncle livin' over thar. Devil Judd, folks calls
him," said the girl simply. This girl was cousin to little June in
Lonesome Cove. Every now and then she would look behind them, and
when Hale turned again inquiringly she explained:

"I'm worried about my cousins back thar. I'm afeered somethin'
mought happen to 'em."

"Shall we wait for them?"

"Oh, no--I reckon not."

Soon they overtook two men on horseback, and after they passed and
were fifty yards ahead of them, one of the men lifted his voice
jestingly:

"Is that your woman, stranger, or have you just borrowed her?"
Hale shouted back: