The Holbrook news., 1920-12-31
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The woman dropped her eyes. After
 all, weakness is not a pleasant fact to
 face. The loss of power, the inability
 to do accustomed things. always
 comes as a shock. Life had brought
 to the on-Gray-Woman little enough -pitifully little enough. But though
 life be ever so bare and gray, no one
 likes to sit helpless and watch It go.
 Haply the young man sensed noth-
 ing of this. but was already busy
 gathering together such of their meager stock of household goods as 1t would be absolutely necessary to
 carry up to the cabin under the cliff
 if the coming night was to be spent
 ashore.
 Nothing remained but the actual going ashore. His mother came first, as he had said. While packing, he had planned to help her up the hill to the spring and leave her there while he swept the old cabin, aired 1t out, put up the cook stove, and otherwise made the place as sweet and inviting as possible for her occupancy.
 Just before passing through the rumpled curtain of the houseboat she stopped and gazed over the tiny cabin.
 "Just one look before I go," she said.
 / He was astonished at the wistful- ness in her tones.
 "Why, mother. you can come back any minute"
 Tt has been my home for twenty years" she said as she turned away, her tone more the voicing of reflec- ton than the statement of a fact.
 Across the gangplank and up the slope among the trees he led her carried her-with all the tenderness due from a man to his mother; for the Iron-Gray- y-Woman had the man ners and speech of a "lady of high degree; and she had taught him all she knew. He had brought along a cushion, which he spread for her upon a moss-upholstered rock. With the spray of the waterfall in the air. with the cup in her hand, the cool spring within reach, he left her and hurried back to the houseboat.
 4IC was OAPplAS AOW bOWoAN the distant bend in the river when the last of the moving was done. A purple twilight had given place to dark before he had the cabin put to rights, his mother in her easy chair. and supper on the table: bass, taken from the nets only that morning; fruit from the woods; baked pota- toes; toast, crisp and brown; and tea, which she had left her chair long enough to draw.
 2 In the contented silence that often falls after the evening meal. the man sat covertly studying her face. The fever had gone. It was face almost serene. She appeared, as he watched her, to be listening to the sound of the waterfall floating in through the open window upon the pulse of the night. The move had done her good. He thought how beautiful she must have been-how beautiful still.
 Her words that afternoon came back to him-the only word that had ever come to him out of the past. The desire to learn more grew in him, and vet he dreaded to speak. The Iron Gray Woman was not one to invite condolences. And yet a man ought to know something of the manner of his coming into the world.
 The cabin had settled to deep quiet he lap of the waterfall had swelled to full strength upon the silence; when the cabin door banged open and , man stormed in. The Pearlhunter vhirled up out of his chair and faced lim.
 The intruder was a man of forty, possibly more, lacking somewhat of he Pearlhunter's height and massive build, yet still what would be called ], big man-tight and we'll set up smooth shaven, except for an aggres- ;ive mustache faintly shot with gray. He wore a slouch hat, top boots, frock ,oat; and a very fancy and much-be- lowered vest. His blue eyes-the lind of blue that turns black when an uncomfortable knack If seeming to see everything in sight. They were just now fitting furtively, bit contemptuously, over the tall fig Ire of the young man facing him.
 You're the fellow they call the 
 The gray eyes of the man addressed vere blazing; his fingers manifesting m almost uncomfortable inclination O tuck themselves into his palms; ut he held himself and answered | .ivilly:
 "They do call me that"
 What are you doing in this cabin?"
 ''Is it yours?'
 "No difference whether 1t is or whether it isn't. It's no place for river cum to wash ashore"
 A stranger ought to be pretty sure f himself before he says a thing like | hat, especially when he says 1t the ] Tay the Man-in-the-Fancy-Vest said |. He didn't know the Pearlhunter | mot as the river men knew minor e would have considered long time rst. Almost any river man along the could have told him that hings would happen. Things did appen. Still, 1t probably would have cen just the same anyhow. A wildcat ouldn't have lodged the toil-callOused st that stabbed across the candle ght. It caught the intruder flat in he mouth and pitched him back gainst the door, which slammed to he wall, and thus saved him from go- lg clear to the floor.
 He was up in a flash. His hand ropped toward his hip. That Is al- avs a dangerous motion to make in 10 Flatwoods: never more so than