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Jean bent his head in stunned cognizance of the notoriety hich his father had chosen to affront any and all Tonto Basin men ere under the ban of his suspicion What a terrible reputation and trust to have saddled upon hiether inside Jean, for a hot ball of fire that threatened to explode A retreating selfaway frorimmer man

"Son, if I could have looked forward to anythin' but blood spillin' I'd never have given you such a naoin' to tell you now is my secret My other sons an' Ann have never heard it Jie, but he doesn't know I'll shore never tell anyone else but you An' you one"

"I proan his father, breathing hard His face twitched and his hands clenched "The sheep eneether as children, an' fought with each other as boys We never got along together An' we both fell in love with the saed to one of the old families of the South She was a beauty, an' much courted, an' I reckon it was hard for her to choose But I won her an' we becaed Then the war broke out I enlisted with my brother Jean He advised me to marry Ellen before I left But I would not That was the blunder of my life Soon after our partin' her letters ceased to come But I didn't distrust her That was a terrible tiot crippled an' put in a hospital An' in aboot a year I was sent back hoaze at his father's face

"Lee Jorth had gotten out of goin' to war," went on the rancher, in lower, thicker voice "He'dbefore I got well He had run after her like a hound after a hare An' Ellen et aboot I went to see Jorth an' Ellen I confronted theone back on ood fortune He'd made Ellen believe in my dishonor But, I reckon, lies or no lies, Ellen Sutton was faithless In my absence he had won her away from me An' I saw that she loved hienerosity If she'd been iretted iven, perhaps But she worshiped him She was his slave An' I, wal, I learned what hate was