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And thus together they stamped hill morality as irrevocably right in the hills.

The two lovers, silent and unhappy in this divided embrace, pursued their own thoughts to troubled inconclusions. At last the girl asked, "You didn't tell Zed Parrum, did you, Abner?"

A certain dismay went through Abner and he answered without conviction, "Good Lord, Nessie, you know I wouldn't tell nobody!"

At his tone she sat upright in his lap and looked at him with frightened circled eyes.

"What did you do?" she asked in a whisper.

"Why—nuthin' . . ."

"Yes, you did."

"Well," began Abner unwillingly, "the other day me an' Zed was eatin' our lunches out on the dump and I ast him if Peck Bradley put up a fight when the men went to pull him out of the lock-up. . . ."

"Ye-es?" queried Nessie, studying Abner's face with apprehension.

"He said, wasn't I there. I said no. He ast where I was. I said here at home. He ast whyn't I come. At first I said I forgot it. He laughed and said, 'Forgot hell—you was doin' somethin' else.'"

What little colour there was in the milliner's face vanished, her eyes widened.

"Then you told him!" she gasped.

"Good Lord, no. I spoke up like a man an' told him I stayed at home when I got good an' ready, and it wasn't none of his damn business!"

Nessie drew a breath of horror. "Oh, you told him! You told him! And now he knows! Ever'body knows! O-oh!" She arose in a sort of trance of terror and moved to the middle of the room, conveying a strange impression that she was utterly lost.

"For God's sake, Nessie, don't take on like that!" urged Abner in an anxious but somewhat irritated undertone.