The thin man’s shifty eyes roved to his companion, who had almost begun to smile and who muttered to himself as he rose: 

“Well, by God!”

In utter silence the meal went through, except that the old man, with his pistols crossed in his lap, kept urging his guests to the full of their appetites.  Jason ate like a wolf.

“Git a poke, mammy,” said old Jason when the boy dropped knife and fork, “an’ fill it full o’ victuals.”

And still with a smile the thick-set man watched her gather food from the table, put it in a paper sack, and hand it to the boy.

“Now git, Jasie—­these men air goin’ to stay hyeh with me fer’ bout an hour, an’ then they can go atter ye ef they think they can ketch ye.”

With no word at all even of good-by, little Jason noiselessly disappeared.  A few minutes later, sitting in front of the fire with his pistols still in his lap, old Jason Hawn explained: 

“Fer a mule, a Winchester, and a hundred dollars I can git most any man in this country killed.  Fer a thousand I reckon I could git hit proved that I had stole a side o’ bacon or a hoss.  Fer a hundred thousand I could git hit proved that the President of these United States killed that feller—­an’ human natur’ is about the same, I reckon, ever’whar.  You don’t git no grandson o’ mine when thar’s a bunch o’ greenbacks like that tied to the rope that’s a-pinin’ to hang him.”

An hour later he told his guests that they could be on their way, though he’d be mighty glad to have ’em stay all night—­and they went, both chagrined, the thin one raging within but obedient and respectful without, while the other, chuckling at his companion’s discomfiture and no little at his own, watched with a smile the old fellow’s method of speeding his parting guests.

“Git on yo’ hosses, men,” he suggested, and when the two stepped from the porch he replaced his own guns on the mantel and followed them with both of their guns in one hand and a Winchester in the other.  While they were mounting he walked to the corner of the yard, laid both their pistols on the fence, walked back to the porch, and stood there with his Winchester in the hollow of his arm.

“Ride by thar, men, and git yo’ guns; an’ I reckon,” he suggested casually but convincingly, “when you pick ’em up you better not even look back—­nary one O’ ye.”

“Can you beat it?” murmured the quiet man, while the other snarled helplessly.

“An’ when you git down to town you can tell the sheriff.  He’s a Honeycutt, an’ he won’t come atter me, but I’ll go down thar to him an’ pay my leetle fine.”

Again the man said: 

“Well, by God!”

And as the two rode on, the old fellow’s voice followed them: 

“Come ag’in, men—­I wish ye both well.”

Two nights later St. Hilda, reading by her fire, heard a tap on her window-pane, and, looking up, saw Jason’s pale face outside.  She ran to the door, and the boy stumbled wearily toward the threshold and stopped with a look of fear and piteous appeal.  She stretched out her arms to him, and, broken at last, the boy sank at her feet, and, with his head in her lap, sobbed out of his heart the truth.