He promised not to tech ye, 'n' I
knowed he would keep his word as long as he was sober. It'll be
all right now, I reckon," he concluded, "when I tell him whut ye
aims to do, though he hev got a spite ag'in all furriners. Far'well! I
wish ye well; I wish ye well."
An hour later Clayton was in Jellico. It was midnight when the
train came in, and he went immediately to his berth. Striking the curtain accidentally, he loosed it from its fastenings, and, doubling the pillows, he lay looking out on the swiftly passing landscape. The moon was full and brilliant, and there was a strange, keen pleasure in being whirled in such comfort through the night. The mists almost hid the mountains. They seemed very, very far away. A red star trembled in the crest of Wolf Mountain. Easter's cabin must be almost under that Star. He wondered if she were asleep. Perhaps she was out on the porch, lonely, suffering, and thinking of him. He felt her kiss and her tears upon his hand. Did he not love her? Could there be any doubt about that? His thoughts turned toRaines, and he saw the mountaineer in his lonely cabin, sitting with his head bowed in his hands in front of the dying fire. He closed his eyes, and another picture rose before him-a scene at
home. He had taken Easter to New York. How brilliant the light!
what warmth and luxury! There stood his father, there his mother.
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