Birt looked dazed for a moment. Then the blood rushed to his face
and as suddenly receded, leaving it pale and rigid. He was cold and
trembling. He could not speak.

The tanner scrutinized him narrowly. Then he said, "Tell him 'bout
it, Andy. Tell him jes' ez ye tole me. An' mebbe he'll hev sense
enough ter gin it up when he sees he air fairly caught."

"Waal," said Byers, leaning back against the wall of the smoke-
house, and holding the knife idly poised in his hand, "I kem down
ter the tanyard betimes that mornin' arter the storm. Both ye an'
Birt war late. I noticed Nate Griggs's coat hangin' thar in the
shed, with a paper stickin' out'n the pocket, ez I started inter the
smoke-house ter tend ter the fire. I reckon I mus' hev made
consider'ble racket in thar, 'kase I never hearn nuthin' till I sot
down afore the fire on a log o' wood, an' lit my pipe. All of a
suddenty thar kem a step outside, toler'ble light on the tan. I
jes' 'lowed 't war ye or Birt. But I happened ter look up, an' thar
I see a couple o' big black eyes peepin' through that thar crack in
the wall."

He turned and pointed out a crevice where the "daubin'" had fallen
from the "chinkin'" between the logs.

"Ye can see," he resumed, "ez this hyar crack air jes' the height o'
Birt. Waal, them eyes lookin' in so onexpected didn't 'sturb me
none. I hev knowed the Dicey eye fur thirty year, an' thar ain't
none like 'em nowhar round the mountings. But I 'lowed 't war
toler'ble sassy in Birt ter stand thar peerin' at me through the