"Whar?" Again the temptation was too great.

"Talking to the Falin who started the row." This time the Red Fox
wheeled sharply and his pale-blue eyes filled with suspicion.

"I keeps friends with both sides," he said. "Ain't many folks can
do that."

"I reckon not," said Hale calmly, but in the pale eyes he still
saw suspicion.

When they entered the cabin, a little old woman in black, dumb and
noiseless, was cooking supper. The children of the two, he
learned, had scattered, and they lived there alone. On the mantel
were two pistols and in one corner was the big Winchester he
remembered and behind it was the big brass telescope. On the table
was a Bible and a volume of Swedenborg, and among the usual
strings of pepper-pods and beans and twisted long green tobacco
were drying herbs and roots of all kinds, and about the fireplace
were bottles of liquids that had been stewed from them. The little
old woman served, and opened her lips not at all. Supper was eaten
with no further reference to the doings in town that day, and no
word was said about their meeting when Hale first went to Lonesome
Cove until they were smoking on the porch.

"I heerd you found some mighty fine coal over in Lonesome Cove."

"Yes."

"Young Dave Tolliver thinks you found somethin' else thar, too,"