“Nothing would please me better. But that man is one of a gang. If I stop here, he may bring seven other devils worse than himself, and the last end of Benjamin will be worse than the first. I should be waylaid and killed. And that would be unfortunate.”
“Do you suppose they will come here when you have gone?”
“No fear of that, after what I’ve told him. That man will shun this house as if it was his grave. Well, good night.”
He took Gentle Annie’s face between his hands. Then he held her at arms’ length, and gazed steadfastly into her face. And, the next moment, he was gone.
The girl turned the nuggets over and over with a listless finger. “Men, men,” she murmured, “how madly jealous—and when there is so little need. As if I care for one a pennyworth more than another.”
CHAPTER XXXV.
Bail.
The Pilot of Timber Town sat in his dining-room in the many-gabled house; Captain Sartoris sat opposite him, and both looked as miserable as men could possibly look.