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when he tried to rise. He straightened his legs with pain and at last stood on his feet and walked.

Tug Beavers joined Abner grouchily. "Damn fool," he growled, "accuse me of running crooks. . . . I kain't use crooks nohow. . . . I practised a lot with 'em, but I kain't run 'em. . . ." He continued his bitter meditations and finally said, "Don't know what's the matter with Peck Bradley, thought me an' him wuz the best of frien's."

A player walking through the darkness near the two answered, "You don't know. Where you been to-night?"

"Jess ramblin'," said Tug, trying to see his questioner. "What makes you ast that?"

"Nothin', cep' Peck Bradley used to ramble hisse'f in the direction you took tull he got into that trouble over killin' ole man Shleton; then Squire Meredith forbid his daughter from seein' Peck."

Mr. Beavers hesitated a moment, then said in another tone, "Oh—I see. . . ."

"Yep," agreed the informant, "I guess if you had made a move when Peck ripped yore shirt it would have been Katy Lock the Door with you, all right."

This was said very cheerfully, considering that the phrase "Katy Lock the Door" meant that Tug would have been killed.

"They ort to hang that damn rascal," denounced Tug earnestly.

"My dad," answered the voice discreetly, "told me to think what I pleased so long as I don't say nothin'."

Tug moved away from Abner over to the man and began talking in a lower tone.

Presently a stranger walked up by Abner's side and after a few words about the crap game ventured the remark that rich people could play cards in their own houses, but poor men were forced to go to the woods for their gambling. From this he went on to say that the rich took all the earnings of the poor, which was not right. After that Abner caught phrases about "class consciousness," "unearned increment,"