"Not if there are older claimants on the field?"
"But are there?"
"One has come—a spruce young naval officer—no, I'll be fair;—a fine, handsome, well-bred fellow, every inch a man in appearance. And she corresponds with him."
"But what could he do in her life, sir? He'd pull one way, and she another. Don't you give her up!"
"I'll hang till she shakes me, Dan!" laughed the other, lapsing into the slang of the men as his hopes rose.
They said good-night and took their several ways, Dan to break up the little retreat in the woods, which he no longer needed, since hope and action were to supersede despair and remorseful grief; Dalton to tramp sturdily back to the village, resolved to wait and work.
As he neared the settlement he noticed lights ablaze in Bachelor's Row, and many figures flitting about with hurried movements. He stopped to inquire the cause. Mrs. Hemphill edged her way close to him, breaking in before the slower speech of the man so questioned had forced its way out.
"Why, you see Murfree's dead, at last. He's been trying to fling hisself out o' bed agin, an' it took three men to hold him. In the struggle he just cullopsed and died. They wasn't nobody but Dan could keep him down lately, and Dan's gone some'ers to-night."
She had scarcely finished when the lad, on a well-weighted wheel, sprinted into view. Dalton called him.
"This way, Dan," and he flung himself off.