Herbert Scott was not a coward—indeed, his errand, deep in the woods above the Baring house on the afternoon when Colonel Thomas came to see Elizabeth, proved him courageous.

His anonymous and unpleasant communications had not been threats or warnings, but taunts. The mountaineers seemed to have come to the conclusion that he was worth nothing, that he was a mere appendage attached to the proverbial apron-string of his sister.

The taunts were never uttered when Elizabeth was within hearing. Herbert, bending over a garden-bed, heard from the woodland a shrill “Mammy’s boy! Mammy’s boy!” then a laugh. At first he had walked directly toward the sound, but he never could see who had uttered it. He knew, sometimes, that the speaker receded before him; there was a rustle in the leaves and underbrush, and sometimes the call was repeated at increasing distances. But more often, he could neither see nor hear a living soul.

But now, on the afternoon when he had gone to look up the boundary lines, the taunts changed to a more serious approach. Suddenly he found himself looking into a gun-barrel. He recognized at once the holder of the gun and stood still. He did not throw up his hands or make any sign of surrender, but he felt the blood recede from his heart.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I want that paper,” answered Sheldon, sullenly and with determination. There was also another quality in the thick tones—could it be fright?

Herbert was wholly mystified.

“What paper?”

“The paper the girl got from Old Mammy. Mammy’s holdin’ it up to tease me! Mammy’s crazy; what she says won’t go, but we want the paper.”“I don’t know anything about a paper.”

“You lie!” cried Sheldon.

A little of the blood returned to Herbert’s heart. He squared his shoulders.

“I do not lie!”

“You’ve got it hidden somewhere to make trouble. Fork it out! We won’t make no trouble for them that makes no trouble for us. She got the road-maker to help her; one of them writ his name on it. Mammy brags about it.”

Herbert was completely bewildered.

“I know nothing about it.”

“Well, then, you come with me an’ perhaps you’ll learn something.”

“My horse is tied over there.”

“Don’t worry about your horse. Come on.”

Herbert obeyed. There was no question as to the seriousness of Sheldon’s intentions and there was no question about the deadly power of his loaded gun. He led the way slowly and cautiously down through the woods toward the house. Did he mean to corral Elizabeth also? Even in his terror and despair Herbert hoped that Elizabeth was not at home. Surely she could have no paper which belonged to these desperadoes!

Before they reached the edge of the woods where they could look out on the old house, two men met them. One was a shorter man than Sheldon with glowering eyes and a black beard which made him look like a pirate. Elizabeth would have recognized him as the “Black Smith” whom Colonel Thomas had described. The other was “Bud.”

“She’s went off,” Black Smith announced. “She’s far down the road.”

“Come on,” ordered Sheldon. “We’ll find that paper.”

He marched Herbert into the kitchen and made him open the doors of the cupboard. Then they went through the house, from cellar to attic. Confident that he would find nothing, Herbert searched thoroughly. Under Elizabeth’s bureau cover, he found the two warning papers. His eyes blazed.

“I never saw these. I should think you’d be ashamed of yourselves, big men trying to frighten a girl!”

“And a little mammy’s boy!” said Sheldon in an ugly tone.

Then Sheldon took from his pocket a stump of a lead pencil and another piece of paper and wrote another bulletin.

“She’ll know what to do when she finds that,” said he. “Now march!”

Herbert went out the front door and round the house into the woods as he was directed. At the wood’s edge, Black Smith fell in with them; the other remained behind.

“What are you going to do with my sister?” demanded Herbert.

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” answered Sheldon. “I want the paper, I don’t want your sister. Wishin’ she’d come an’ take care of you, are you, mammy’s boy?”

Herbert made no answer. Now Black Smith took a share in the conversation.

“The mountain people don’t stand for no nonsense,” said he. “They ain’t like the people of the plain. The people of the plain says one thing and means another, while the mountain people says one thing and sticks to it. The mountain people—”

“Shut up!” commanded Sheldon, whether in weariness of Black Smith’s loquacity or because he thought silence best, it was hard to say. There was a surprising sentimentality about Black Smith.

“You talk too much,” said Sheldon.

The three looked back. From their position they could see past the corner of the house to a spot of color still vivid in the afternoon light. Sheldon lifted his gun.

“Don’t do that!” cried Herbert.

But Sheldon only laughed. A bullet struck the spot of bright color and the flag fluttered a little.

“Hit it!” said Sheldon with satisfaction.

“You rascal!” cried Herbert.

Sheldon laughed again as though pleased with himself.“I shot at that rag many times,” said he. “Off with you! March!”

When they had penetrated into the deep woods, Herbert remembered poor Joe.

“I told you that my horse is tied up there,” said he. “He can’t even crop the grass.”

“We’ll settle him,” said Sheldon. To Herbert his tone was vicious. Would they shoot the poor beast or torture him?

But Sheldon had no such cruel intention, although he lifted his gun at sight of the old animal, now restless and whinnying.

“Oh, don’t!” cried Herbert.

The bullet did not touch the horse, but only the strap which held him. Joe lifted head and heels. The quick motion tore the pierced bridle through and Joe was gone, bounding over the rocks and through thickets as though on a smooth race-course.

Once or twice Herbert was given directions to walk toward the right or the left. Otherwise his captors did not speak. Black Smith had evidently accepted reproof, for he said no more about the “mountain people.”

Herbert began presently to stumble over stones and projecting roots. It was now almost dark and his head was dizzy. They seemed after a while to have stepped into a rough road, even a road upon which some work had recently been done. If so, he was not being entirely separated from the rest of mankind. Then a thought startled him. Sheldon had spoken of road-makers in connection with this mysterious paper. There evidently had been road-makers in the neighborhood. But Elizabeth could not have come as far as this!

At last, when it seemed to Herbert that he had walked almost all night, he began to hear voices, and in a moment saw a faint light. The light was darkened, apparently, by the passing of an object before it. Another man joined them, and still another.

“Sit down!” ordered Sheldon.

“Where?” asked Herbert.Sheldon took him by the arm and guided him to what appeared to be the doorway of a cabin. He sat down, breathing uncomfortably a heavy human and canine odor which seemed to emanate from within the cabin. Sheldon whistled and Herbert felt a panting creature pass him.

“Watch him!” ordered Sheldon.

Herbert heard the sound of retreating steps, of other growls, of voices near at hand. One was a woman’s.

“You’ll bring destruction on yourselves!” she cried. “You’re plottin’ an’ plannin’ your own ruin an’ downfall! The State police won’t stand the carrying off of men, they—”

The speech ended abruptly, almost as though a period had been put to it by force.

Herbert heard Sheldon’s sharp “Shut up, Jinny!” and another whine from Black Smith about the “mountain people.” Then he sat motionless, hearing the heavy breathing of the watch-dog, though he could not see him. When he stretched out his tired legs, the dog growled menacingly. He had seen either this dog or one like him with Sheldon, a tall, gaunt animal with a bristling collar of fur, and he had no intention of risking an attack.

His eyes strained in vain to pierce the darkness, but he could see nothing, not even the light. He surmised that there were tall trees near by; he could hear the leaves stirring gently far above his head. Even the voices had ceased to sound. Had his captors gone to bed, or had they shut themselves in somewhere to discuss his fate?

Sometimes waves of weakness rushed over poor Herbert, but they were not waves of fright. Elizabeth would long ago have found the paper and would have gone for help. He believed that by morning he might expect her. The summary treatment which he had received had wrought a change in him. The high-handedness of his capture enraged him. He lifted his head and said the words that Elizabeth had said weeks before, “They shall not drive us away!” He had no affection for the house of John Baring, and he shared but few of Elizabeth’s fond dreams of clearing his grandfather’s name of its stain, but he would not be coerced in this fashion. He despised the neighborhood which had for so long tolerated these desperadoes.

He was mistaken about the flight of time. Twilight had seemed to come early because the woods were thick and because it was cloudy, and the journey had seemed hours long because of his weariness. It was not yet eleven o’clock when Sheldon and Black Smith returned with the two other men. Did these, together with the man left at the house, represent the total able-bodied forces?

They carried with them old lanterns, made of tin and pierced with holes, and they sat down in a semi-circle before the door of the cabin or dog-kennel whichever it might be. Sheldon, who seemed to lead them in everything, spoke first.

“Now, boy, we want that paper, an’ we believe there is one way to get it. You write an’ tell your sis to send it up here. Then you can go, prompt.”

Black Smith was, it seemed, like many orators, not to be permanently suppressed.

“People have got to be learned that there’s no foolin’ with the mountain people,” said he.

“I don’t know anything about any paper,” insisted Herbert. “My sister didn’t tell me anything about a paper.”

“You don’t need to know anything about the paper,” said Sheldon. “We tell you that the girl got a sworn paper from Mammy an’ Mammy’s out of her head an’ she talks too much. She don’t know what she’s sayin’, but a sworn lie holds for the truth.” He leaned forward and laid a scrap of paper on Herbert’s knee. “You tell her that you’re here an’ that you’re safe, an’ that she shall send the paper, then by morning you can go.”

“I can’t make her send it.”

Sheldon laughed.

“She’ll send it to get her baby boy!” said he.The insulting words brought Herbert to his feet.

“She won’t do anything of the kind. She’s gone for help, long ago, I can tell you that. Do you think she’ll sit down there and do nothing? You don’t know her! We were told that the instant you gave us any trouble we could have the constabulary come up here. They’ll wipe you out! They’ve got your deeds recorded! They’ll punish you for the present and the past.”

A dark figure appeared in the faint speckled circle of lamplight.

“I told you so!” said the woman’s voice, which Herbert had heard before. “Destruction is waiting for us! Destruction from our airless lives, according to the nurse, and destruction from the guns of the soldiers.”

Sheldon rose muttering.

“Git out of here, Jinny!”

The woman moved backward.

“She’s exactly right,” said Herbert. “One of you has sense, anyhow!”But Jinny’s tirade was not taken seriously by her kinsfolk. Sheldon returned and sat down heavily.

“You don’t suppose, boy, that we left her free to run round over the country, do you?”

Herbert shivered. Was a gun-barrel pointed also at Elizabeth? Nevertheless, he did not believe that she would follow the dictation of any gun-barrel. He saw the desperation of these outlaws on one side and Elizabeth’s indifference to danger and her anger at injustice on the other. There was also another element. Elizabeth would be wild with fear for him. At that thought Herbert’s cheeks reddened in the darkness. She would not expect him to be able to help himself!

“Write what we tell you,” said Sheldon, tapping him on the knee.

Herbert glanced down at the paper. The dark night, which seemed actually to press down upon him, the encircling men, the den behind him, the ferocious dogs lurking in the shadow—he was acutely conscious of all. He had always been taken care of by Elizabeth, and now he saw the words formed by his hand, “For my sake, Elizabeth, send them whatever paper you have!”

But what paper was it? Why had she not told him about it? She had no business to keep him in ignorance! What motive could she have had?

Then Herbert answered his own question. Elizabeth’s motive was never a selfish one; she wished always to spare and defend him. Perhaps she had thought that she had found a clue, and losing it, had not wished to disappoint him. Perhaps she had come upon some fact which had ended all her hopes. She had seemed quieter of late. Perhaps, on the other hand, she had really found a clue, and by appealing to her to save him, he would spoil everything.

He looked up. He believed again that, even in the dim light, he saw fear in the scowling faces. What dreadful secrets this distant corner of the mountain might hide! What crimes might have been committed here, undiscovered, perhaps unsuspected! An old woman might well, in her dotage, cry out facts at which her family would be terrified! The blood now rushed through Herbert’s veins.

“You’ve told her what you want,” said he. “She’ll have to decide for herself. I won’t write anything—not a word!”

There was an angry murmur. Black Smith began to declaim.

“You needn’t think the mountain people’ll stand for such talk,” said he wildly. “You—”

“Shut up!” commanded Sheldon.

Then Sheldon himself uttered a sentence of more weighty import. He accompanied it with a sharp stroke of his fist on Herbert’s knee.

“We can bury you in the grave with your gran’pappy, if that’s what you want,” said he. “He was a betrayer.”

At that there came a cry from outside the circle. Again Jinny had come close to the group in front of the cabin door.

“You’ll see destruction soon enough!” she warned.Sheldon got to his feet and whistled. Two great dogs bounded toward him.

“Watch him!” he commanded.

At once he and his mates went off into the darkness.