well, though he had a powerful keen misery in his side.

"That was whar' they done kicked him most, Miss," he added.
Betty shuddered.

"How much longer will he be confined to the house?" she asked.

"I heard him 'low to Mas'r Carrington, Miss, as how he reckoned
he'd take a hossback ride to-morrow evenin' if the black and blue
was all come out of his features--"

"Oh--" gasped Betty.

"Seems like they was mighty careless whar' they put their feet,
don't it, Miss?" said Jeff.

It was this information she gleaned from Jeff that led Betty to
desperate lengths, to the making of what her cooler judgment told
her was a desperate bargain.

At Thicket Point Charley Norton, greatly excited, .hobbled into
the library in search of Carrington. He found him reading by the
open window.

"Look here, Bruce!" he cried. "It's settled; she's going to
marry me!"

The book slipped unheeded from Carrington's hand to the floor.
For a moment he sat motionless, then he slowly pulled himself up
out of his chair.