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"I' down upon the tracks

Tessibel wound her ar the red curls under her cheek for a pillow It was good to rest with her friend Between the fence wires she could see the branches of the pine tree, its shadowy arht streaks in the sky What a wonderful being the student's God was! He had listened to the cry of a squatter and had saved her

"Yer daddy ain't a-comin' home," Ben Letts broke in upon her meditations

"He air," retorted Tess "He air the nextest tio for him"

"It air a lie," insisted the fisherman, "ye comes with me to the minister and I'll make yer an hones' woman Ye'll have to cut that mop and settle down like a woman should Do ye hear? Tessibel, I says an hones' woman!"

Tessibel shifted her head from Pete's neck and sat up

"Ye says as how--ye and--o to the minister?"

"Yep"

"And we air to be--marriedeh?"

"Yep"

"How about--the--brat--and--and--and Satisfied's girl?"

Myra's secret had slipped from her Ben's silence invited her to proceed

"Yer brat air sick to his grave, he air," said sheits sweetness rough, "and Myry air a-dyin' of a broken heart If yer wants to make an hones' woman, make her one, that air what I says, I does And ye broke her ared rocks! Ye did! And then yer comes--and talks about bein' hones'," the musical voice rose to a cry "Ye can't make a woman hones' for ye ain't hones' yerself"

Without a sound Ben rose froh the fence at Tessibel The stone e, Pete lifted his great body with a low, vicious growl

Tessibel sprang froh the air, catching her curls in its flight Then she lifted the loire of the barbed fence Pete crouched, and wiggled his flattened body through Ben hadn't expected this--he turned and ran The skurrying legs of the dog carried hi like a great night owl, hooted out his fear of the irl did not speak, only waited, waited until a louder cry froripped him Tessibel scarcely dared breathe; her friend, God's earthly instrument, sent to save her, and her mortal enemy were in deadly combat