This Lois Ann, in whose sunken eyes eternal youth burned and glowed, was a mystery in the hills and was never questioned. Long ago she had come, asked no favours, and settled down to fare as best she could. There was but one sure pa.s.sport to her sanctuary. That was--trouble! Once misfortune overtook one, s.e.x was forgotten, but at other times it was understood that Miss Lois Ann had small liking or sympathy for men, while on the other hand she brooded over women and children with the everlasting strength of maternity.

It was suspected, and with good reason, that many refugees from justice pa.s.sed through Miss Lois Ann's front door and escaped by other exits.

Officers of the law had, more than once, traced their quarry to the dreary cabin and demanded entrance for search. This was always promptly given, but never had a culprit been found on the premises! White understood and admired the old woman; he always halted justice, if possible, outside her domain, but, being a hill-man, Jim had his suspicions which he never voiced.

"So now, honey, what yo' coming to me fo' this black night?" said Lois Ann to Nella-Rose after the evening meal was cleared away, the fire replenished, and "with four feet on the fender" the two were content.

"Trouble?" The wonderful eyes searched the happy, young face and at the glance, Nella-Rose knew that she was compelled to confide! There was no choice. She felt the power closing in about her, she found it not so easy as she had supposed, to explain. She sparred for time.

"Tell me a right, nice story, Miss Lois Ann," she pleaded, "and of course it's no trouble that has brought me here! Trouble! Huh!"

"What then?" And now Nella-Rose sank to the hearthstone and bent her head on the lap of the old woman. It was more possible to speak when she could escape those seeking eyes. She closed her own and tried to call Truedale to the dark s.p.a.ce and to her support--but he would not come.

"So it is trouble, then?"

"No, no! it's--oh! it's the--joy, Miss Lois Ann."

"Ha! ha! And you've found out that the young scamp is back--that Lawson?" Lois Ann, for a moment, knew relief.

"It--it isn't Burke," the words came lingeringly. "Yes, I know he's back--is he here?" This affrightedly.

"No--but he's been. He may come again. His maw's always empty, but I will say this for the scoundrel--he gives more than he takes, in the long run. But if it isn't Lawson, who then? Not that snake-in-the-gra.s.s, Jed?" Love and trouble were synonymous with Lois Ann when one was young and pretty and a fool.

"Jed? Jed indeed!"

"Child, out with it!"

"I--I am going to tell you, Miss Lois Ann."

Then the knotted old hand fell like a withered leaf upon the soft hair--the woman-heart was ready to bear another burden. Not a word did the closed lips utter while the amazing tale ran on and on in the gentle drawl. Consternation, even doubt of the girl's sanity, held part in the old woman's keen mind, but gradually the truth of the confession established itself, and once the fact was realized that a stranger--and _such_ a one--had been hidden in the hills while this thing, that the girl was telling, was going on--the strong, clear mind of the listener interpreted the truth by the knowledge gained through a long, hard life.

"And so, you see, Miss Lois Ann, it's like he opened heaven for me; and I want to hide here till he comes to take me up, up into heaven with him. And no one else must know."

Lois Ann had torn the cawl from Nella-Rose's baby face--had felt, in her superst.i.tious heart, that the child was mysteriously destined to see wide and far; and now, with agony that she struggled to conceal, she knew that to her was given the task of drawing the veil from the soul of the girl at her feet in order that she might indeed see far and wide into the kingdom of suffering women.

For a moment the woman fenced, she would put the cup from her if she could, like all humans who understand.

"You--are yo' lying to me?" she asked faintly, and oh, but she would have given much to hear the girl's impish laugh of a.s.sent. Instead, she saw Nella-Rose's eyes grow deadly serious.

"It's no lie, Miss Lois Ann; it's a right beautiful truth."

"And for days and nights you stayed alone with this man?"

The lean hand, with unrelenting strength, now gripped the drooping face and held it firmly while the firelight played full upon it, meanwhile the keen old eyes bored into Nella-Rose's very soul.

"But he--he is my man! You forget the--marrying on the hill, Miss Lois Ann!"

The voice was raised a bit and the colour left the trembling lips.

"Your man!" And a bitter laugh rang out wildly.

"Stop, Miss Lois Ann! Yo' shall not look at me like that!"

The vision was dulled--Nella-Rose shivered.

"You shall not look at me like that; G.o.d would not--why should you?"

"G.o.d!"--the cracked voice spoke the word bitterly. "G.o.d! What does G.o.d care for women? It's the men as G.o.d made things for, and us-all has to fend them off--men and G.o.d are agin us women!"

"No, no! Let me free. I was so happy until--Oh! Miss Lois Ann, you shall not take my happiness away."

"Yo' came to the right place, yo' po' lil' chile."

The eyes had seen all they needed to see and the hand let drop the pretty, quivering face.

"We'll wait--oh! certainly we-all will wait a week; two weeks; then three. An' we-all will hide close and see what we-all shall see!" A hard, pitiful laugh echoed through the room. "And now to bed! Take the closet back o' my chamber. No one can reach yo' there, chile. Sleep and dream and--forget."

And that night Burke Lawson, after an hour's struggle, determined to come forth among his kind and take his place. Nella-Rose had decided him. He was tired of hiding, tired of playing his game. One look at the face he had loved from its babyhood had turned the tide. Lawson had never before been so long shut away from his guiding star. And she had said that he might ask again when he dared--and so he came forth from his cave-place. Once outside, he drew a deep, free breath, turned his handsome face to the sky, and _felt_ the prayer that another might have voiced.

He thought of Nella-Rose, remembered her love of adventure, her splendid courage and spirit. Nothing so surely could win her as the proposal he was about to make. To ask her to remain at Pine Cone and settle down with him as her hill-billy would hold small temptation, but to take her away to new and wider fields--that was another matter! And go they would--he and she. He would get a horse somewhere, somehow. With Nella-Rose behind him, he would never stop until a parson was reached, and after that--why the world would be theirs from which to choose.

And it was at that point of Lawson's fervid, religious state that Jed Martin had materialized and made it imperative that he be dealt with summarily and definitely.

After confiding his immediate future to the subjugated Martin--having forced him to cover at the point of a pistol--Burke, with his big, wholesome laugh, crawled again out of the cave. Then, raising himself to his full height, he strode over the sodden trail toward White's cabin with the lightest, purest heart he had carried for many a day. But Fate had an ugly trick in store for him. He was half way to White's when he heard steps. Habit was strong. He promptly climbed a tree. The moon came out just then and disclosed the follower. "Blake's dawg," muttered Lawson and, as the big hound took his stand under the tree, he understood matters. Blake was his worst enemy; he had a score to settle about the revenue men and a term in jail for which Lawson was responsible. While the general hunt was on, Blake had entered in, thinking to square things, while not bringing himself into too much prominence.

"Yo' infernal critter!" murmured Lawson, "in another minute you'll howl, yo' po' brute. I hate ter shoot yo'--yo' being what yo' are--but here goes."

After that White's was impossible for a time and Nella-Rose must wait.

In a day or so, probably--so Burke quickly considered--he could make a dash back, get White to help him, and bear off his prize, but for the moment the sooner he reached safety beyond the ridge, the better.

Shooting a dog was no light matter.

Lawson reached safety but with a broken leg; for, going down-stream, he had met with misfortune and, during that long, hard winter, unable to fend for himself, he was safely hidden by a timely friend and served by a doctor who was smuggled to the scene and well paid for his help and silence.

And in Lois Ann's cabin Nella-Rose waited, at first with serene hope, and then, with pitiful longing. She and the old woman never referred to the conversation of the first night but the girl was sure she was being watched and shielded and she felt the doubt and scorn in the att.i.tude of Lois Ann.

"I'll--I'll send for my man," at last she desperately decided at the end of the second week. But she dared not risk a journey to the far station in order to send a telegram. So she watched for a chance to send a letter that she had carefully and painfully written.

"I'm to Miss Lois Ann's in Devil-may-come Hollow. I'm trusting and loving you, but Miss Lois Ann--don't believe! So please, Mister Man come and tell her and then go back and I will wait--most truly

Your Nella-Rose."

then she crossed the name out and scribbled "Your doney-gal."

It was early in the third week that Bill Trim came whistling down the trail, on a cold, bitterly cold, November morning. He bore a load of "grateful gifts" to Lois Ann from men and women whom she had succoured in times of need and who always remembered her, practically, when winter "set."

Bill was a half-wit but as strong as an ox; and, once set upon a task, managed it in a way that had given him a secure position in the community. He carried mail into the remotest districts--when there was any to carry. He "toted" heavy loads and gathered gossip and spilled it liberally. He was impersonal, ignorant, and illiterate, but he did his poor best and grovelled at the feet of any one who showed him the least affection. He was horribly afraid of Lois Ann for no reason that he could have given; he was afraid of her eyes--her thin, claw-like hands.

As he now delivered the bundles he had for her he accepted the food she gave and then darted away to eat it in comfort beyond the reach of those glances he dreaded.

And there Nella-Rose sought him and sat beside him with a choice morsel she had saved from her finer fare.