II-XII

Gordon carefully explained the entire circumstance
of the timber to Lettice. "I just
happened to be by the stream," he continued,
"and overheard them. Your father and Simmons
evidently had arranged the thing, and Simmons
was going to crowd you out of all the gain."

"You see to it," she returned listlessly; "you have
my name on that paper, the power of something or
other." She was seated on the porch of their dwelling.
A low-drifting mass of formless grey cloud
filled the narrow opening of the ranges, drooping
in nebulous veils of suspended moisture down to the
vivid green of the valley. The mountains seemed
to dissolve into the nothingness above; the stream
was unusually noisy.

"I might see him this evening," he observed;
"and I could find out how Buck was resting."

"However did he come to get hurt?"

"I never knew rightly, there we were all standing
with Buckley a-talking, when the stone flew out
of the crowd and hit him on the head. Nobody saw
who did it."

"I wish you hadn't been there, Gordon. You

[[216]]

p215 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p216w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p217

v?