Kelsey turned his eyes in blank inquiry from the old man to Pete by his side.
'We air a-layin' fur him now,' Pete explained.
'He hain't been so delivered over by the Lord ez ter kem agin, arter informin' the raiders, inter the Big Smoky?' Kelsey asked, forgetting himself for the moment, and aghast at the doomed man's peril.
Pete tapped his head triumphantly.
'Tain't stuffed with cotton wool,' he declared. 'We let on ter the mounting ez we never knowed who done it. An' we jes' laid low, an' held our tongues betwixt our teeth, when we hearn 'bout'n his 'quirin' round 'bout'n the still, from this'n an' that'n, d'rectly arter the 'lection. We got him beat fur that, jes' 'count o' what he said ter D'rindy, 'kase she wouldn't g-g-gin her cornsent ter shootin' him, an' got dad set so catawampus, he obeyed her like Jacob wouldn't fur nuthin'. An''—with rising emphasis—'th-th-the blamed critter 'lows he lef' no tracks an' ain't been found out yit! An' hyar he be on the Big Smoky agin, a-finishin' up some onsettled business with his old office. I seen him yander ter the Settlemint, an' talked with him frien'ly an' familiar, along o' Gid Fletcher, an' fund out when he war ter start down ter Eskaqua Cove, ter bide all night at Tobe Grimes's house.'
'But—but—ef they never tole him—surely none o' 'em told him'—argued Kelsey breathlessly.
Pete showed his long teeth.
'Somebody tole him,' he said, with a fierce smile. 'H-h-he couldn't git the mounting ter t-t-turn agin we-uns; they war afeard!' cynically discriminating the motive. 'So he kem nosin' roun' 'mongst our c-c-chillen—the little chillen, ez didn't know what they war a-tellin' an' Jacob tole him whar the cave war, an' 'bout haulin' the apples fur pomace. Jacob war the man, fur Mirandy Jane hearn him say it. She hed seen 'Cajah Green afore, when he war sher'ff.'
It was a palpable instance of bad faith and imposition, and it tallied well with Hiram Kelsey's own wrongs. He sat brooding upon them, and looking at the fire with dulled meditative eyes. One of the logs, burnt in twain, broke with a crash under the burden of the others, and the fire, quickening about them, sent up myriads of sparks attendant upon the freshening flames; among the pulsating red coals there were dazzling straw-tinted gleams, and a vista of white heat that repelled the eye.
Outside the wind was rising—its voice hollow, keen, and shrill as it swept over the icy chasms; the trees were crashing their bare boughs together. It was a dreary sound. From far away came the piercing howl of some prowling hungry wolf, familiar enough to the ears that heard it, but its ravening intimations curdled the blood. A cock's crow presently smote the air, clear and resonant as a bugle, and with a curse on tardiness the impatient Sol once more rose and opened the door to look out.