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"Can you breathe?" asked Young, in a low voice "And can you help yourself a little?"

"Yep," came back the faint answer

"Then, when I put out my foot, take hold of it, and make no noise, for your enemy is but a short distance away, and he meant to kill you Now, come up There! Don't lean too heavily upon me, for the rocks are slippery"

Without any more conversation, the two ash over his right brow, crossed the forest toward the tracks By dint of persuasion, Young forced the boy to give his father's nah of the talk between the fishermen to know that Tess was the cause of their quarrel But what Ezra had threatened to tell about Skinner he did not knoo ht-headed and feeble His tongue was loosened in his deliriu heard a story that made his heart beat faster and revived hopes he had considered alh the ined he saw a little figure skirting the rays, with flying red hair Not for anything in the world would he lose sight of the boy He had the first clue in the case that so interested him Acquittal for the father of Tessibel Skinner ithin his grasp It was late when he dragged Ezra, laughing and gibbering, into a private hospital He installed a nurse beside the boy, bidding her keep a record of any delirious ht make, and to observe silence about theman would ask about his son He spoke to the father first, his thick brain trying to avoid trouble

"Ye air both got a lot of nerve to keep three men at the south reel, when I air the only one here"

"Where's Ezy?" asked Long the fish into the cars

"I ain't no way a-knohere he air He skipped away, and said hoanted to speak to his pappy, and I ain't seed him since Ezy were a fool when he was born"

"Gone home, like a sneakin' kid," put in Jake Brewer "He ain't no hankerin' for nettin' He ain't been right since Orn Skinner shot the gaood, if he does do what he oughtn't to soo home"