Blant had dinner for us at eleven, and soon afterward we were ready to depart. "Come over and see us sometime at the school," I called to Blant, as he stood with the babe on his arm by the gate. He thanked me gravely, but did not say he would come.
"Gee," said Nucky, as we rode on, "he can't never do that,—why they'd just have to arrest him if he run into the jaws of the sheriff and the jail that way!"
We made the last hour or two of our journey through moonlight in which the mist-hung mountains and shadowed valleys lay entrancingly lovely.
"This is the kind of nights I allus keep watch for the Cheevers," said Nucky.
I wondered if these were the sole thoughts aroused in him by the wondrous beauty in which he had been born and bred. Presently I knew.
"If maw is in heaven, like you say, do you allow the country round about there is any prettier than this here?" he asked.
"No, I am sure not," I replied, emphatically.