the--women of my family have--"

"Have what? What are you talking about? Do you think--do you imagine--
is it possible that you--who do you think that man was?"

"I have said I did not know," he retorted, frigidly.

She stepped closer to him. She put her little hand on his arm
appealingly. She raised her fathomless eyes to his. "Oh, you mustn't
think it was any young man--any--Why--it was--I see I must tell you
everything. That was Tobe Barnett. He has wanted to help me for a long
time, and he got the chance to-night. He knows the one great sorrow of
my life. Mr. Mostyn, my father is a moonshiner. I don't mean that he
is a regular member of a gang, but he helps a certain set of them, and
to-day Tobe accidentally heard of a plan of the Government officers to
surround the still where my father happens to be to-night. He heard it
through a cousin of his who is employed in the revenue detective
service. Tobe is law-abiding; he didn't want to have anything to do
with such things, but he knew how it would break my heart to have my
father arrested, so he came to me late this afternoon to see if father
had returned. He was going to tell him, you see, and warn him not to
be with the men to-night. But father was still away. Tobe went home;
he said he would come later to see if father was back. I sat up
waiting for him all alone in my room in the dark. I did not want
George or Ann or my mother to know about it. So just now when Tobe
came to my window and found that father had not returned, he
determined to go to the still and warn him. He may get there in time,
and he may not, though it is not far. I promised to wait here at the
gate till he returns. I could not possibly close my eyes in sleep with
a thing like that hanging over me."