Sammy greeted Young Matt warmly.  “I just told Ollie that it was too bad he had not seen you.  You were away the night we called at your house, you know; and he is going home to-morrow.”

The giant looked from one to the other.  Evidently Sammy had not heard of that meeting at the Lookout, and Stewart’s face grew red as he saw what was in the big fellow’s mind.  “I’m mighty glad to see you again,” he said lamely.  “I told Sammy that I had seen you, but she has forgotten.”

“Oh, no, I haven’t,” replied the girl.  “You said that you saw him in the field as you passed the first day you came, but that you were in such a hurry you didn’t stop.”

At this Ollie forced a loud laugh, and remarked that he was in something of a hurry that day.  He hoped that in the girl’s confusion the point might be overlooked.

But the mountaineer was not to be sidetracked so easily.  Ollie’s poor attempt only showed more clearly that he had purposely refrained from telling Sammy of the might when Young Matt had interfered to save his life.  To the simple straight-forward lad of the woods, such a course revealed a spirit most contemptible.  Raising his soiled hands and looking straight at Ollie, he said, deliberately, “I’m sorry, seein’ as this is the first time we’ve met, that I can’t shake hands with you.  This here’s clean dirt, though.”

Sammy was puzzled.  Ollie’s objection to their calling at the mill, his evident embarrassment at the meeting, and something in Young Matt’s voice that hinted at a double meaning in his simple words, all told her that there was something beneath the surface which she did not understand.

After his one remark to her escort, the woodsman turned to the girl, and, in spite of Sammy’s persistent attempts to bring the now sullen Ollie into the conversation, ignored the man completely.  When they had talked for a few moments, Young Matt said, “I reckon you’ll have to excuse me a minute, Sammy; I left the engine in such a hurry when you called that I’ll have to look at it again.  It won’t take more’n a minute.”

As he disappeared in the mill shed, the young lady turned to her companion, “What’s the matter with you two?  Have you met and quarreled since you came home?”

Fate was being very unkind to Ollie.  He replied gruffly, “You’ll have to ask your friend.  I told you how it would be.  The greasy hobo doesn’t like to see me with you, and hasn’t manners enough even to hide his feelings.  Come, let us go on.”

A look that was really worth seeing came into the girl’s fine eyes, but she only said calmly; “Matt will be back in a minute.”

“All the more reason why we should go.  I should think you have had enough.  I am sure I have.”

The young woman was determined now to know what lay at the bottom of all this.  She said quietly, but with a great deal of decision, “You may go on home if you wish; I am going to wait here until Young Matt comes back.”