critter's eyes'll tell you just what sort o' tea-party you're
goin' to have. Thar was a man once--a hoss wrangler--an' the
easier a hoss broke, the more he'd mouch around an' hang his
head, real melancholy and sad-eyed. The only minutes o'
slap-bang-up joy that came his way was when he corralled a bucker
whose natural ability to roll on him an' kick his brains out left
no percentage o' chance in the player's favor. Maybe that's what
I seen in Little Peachey to-day. Just now you said the wild breed
mixes slow. It does: for it sticks out, waitin' for its own kind.
And by that same token, blood talks to blood--aye, even without
no Indian sign-language. Maybe all these years Little Peachey,
settin' out on them rocks, has been a-watchin' for more than
foreign countries."

"Aye, mebbe that's all right." Crane paced the floor, and his
voice rose savagely: "Don't know but what your palaver mightn't
win plenty o' foolish gals. But who are ye? What's your trade?
Whar's your folks? Thar's lots o' rogues afoot. Do you allow I'd
let the first stranger in Ragged Woods talk marriage to my
daughter? What have you said? What's between you? Out with it, or
I'll have you in Rockledge Jail by to-morrow morning!"

The Man who had come nodded response with imperturbable gravity.

"I like your talk," he said. "It comes straight off the hip, an'
it calls for a straight answer. What have I spoke to her?
Nothin'! What's between us? Nothin' but the makin's! Next,
touchin' myself: Since sixteen I've been kickin' up the dust o'
the earth till my home is anywhar immediately convenient. Once I
had a brother in New Orleans, another in the Northwest, and