"They do not know him as Conrad and I do," she went on, hastily, after introducing the subject of her own accord. "I first met him away up in the mountains. After my father died, and the property was taken from me through an error in his will, I taught school for some years to gain a living. Then, one fall when I was in the Adirondacks, it chanced that a dreadful forest fire swept down from every side. I was caught in the midst of it, and I had given up all hope of surviving; when he came and took me up in his arms. Somehow I seemed to feel that all would be well. Oh! how strong he was, and how he braved every sort of peril in order to carry me safely through. It was then and there that my heart went out to him. And afterwards we were married. He has always been the same to me, tender and kind; though latterly his life has been soured through the treachery of one whom he trusted."
She stopped there, sighed, and looked sad. Elmer would have liked very much to know how they came to be there near Raccoon Bluff, which, by a strange twist of Fate, had recently come into the possession of the very man against whom Jem Shock believed he had such a grievance. It was too delicate a subject, however, for him to attempt to handle; she must tell him, if at all, through her own volition, Elmer concluded.
But somehow it did him good to hear such fine things said of the rough Jem; for it coincided with his belief that one cannot always tell from the exterior what may be within the shell. If only now Rufus could discover that it had all been a grievous mistake, and that his father would give anything to make amends for the unfortunate past, how delightful things would be.
So Elmer, as he continued to talk with the little lady—for she was that in every sense, although her dress may have been of the cheapest material, and there was a painful lack of many comforts in her modest cabin home—came to know her as well as if he had met her long before. Glimpses of her life, her hopes and fears were constantly passing before his mental observation; and he was more than glad now that he had taken that notion to walk in the direction of the blue smoke wreaths eddying upward in the lazy morning air several miles distant.
Conrad had put his beloved violin carefully away. It could be seen that his whole heart was tied up in that precious instrument. Elmer, remembering the dispute he had had with unbelieving George, asked about the violin, and whether it was really the former possession of the lad's famous grandfather.
"Yes, that is true," she told him, sighing again. "He used it all of his last years of playing. It shared some of his most wonderful triumphs, and he loved it as the apple of his eye. It is a genuine Stradivarius instrument. I could have sold it for thousands of dollars, since it had once been his means of fascinating untold myriads of music lovers; but that would have killed me. It is all I have left to remember him by; and besides, something told me when Conrad came that he was destined to inherit the talent."
Just then Elmer saw the boy spring down from his seat close beside his mother. At the same time he heard the sound of a heavy footfall, and guessed what that meant. Jem Shock was coming home. How would he greet one of the boys from the camp where that son of the man he had such cause for hating held forth? Elmer stood up. If he felt the least tremor in the region of his heart, he certainly gave no sign of this, for his face was wreathed in one of his most genial smiles as he waited for the poacher to appear.
Then a form darkened the open doorway, and with a shout Conrad rushed forward, to be gathered up in the arms of Jem Shock, and held tight to his breast. And seeing this Elmer somehow could not doubt but that it was all bound to come out right in the end, no matter what clouds might drift across the sky meanwhile.