Cronk stared vacantly.
"Nope," he drawled; "I'll stay here in the hut with Midge. It's dark, and she's afraid of ghosts. I'll never steal ag'in, Mister, so I can't get pinched."
Vandecar still insisted:
"But won't you let your little girl come back and get her clothes? And you, too, can come to our home, for—for a visit." His face crimsoned as he prevaricated.
But Lon still shook his head.
"A squatter woman's place be in her home with her man," he said.
Vandecar turned helplessly upon Katherine.
"You persuade him," he entreated in an undertone.
Katherine whispered her desire in her father's ear.
"We'll go only for a few days," she promised.