The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | Page 4

rolled down to the ledge below her. The fisherman turned his head and she started to run, but without a word he turned again to the fish he was playing. Moreover, he was too far out in the water to catch her, so she advanced slowly--even to the edge of the stream, watching the fish cut half circles about the man. If he saw her, he gave no notice, and it was well that he did not. He was pulling the bass to and fro now through the water, tiring him out--drowning him--stepping backward at the same time, and, a moment later, the fish slid easily out of the edge of the water, gasping along the edge of a low sand-bank, and the fisherman reaching down with one hand caught him in the gills. Then he looked up and smiled--and she had seen no smile like that before.
"Howdye, Little Girl?"
One bare toe went burrowing suddenly into the sand, one finger went to her red mouth--and that was all. She merely stared him straight in the eye and he smiled again.
"Cat got your tongue?"
Her eyes fell at the ancient banter, but she lifted them straightway and stared again.
"You live around here?"
She stared on.
"Where?"
No answer.
"What's your name, little girl?"
And still she stared.
"Oh, well, of course, you can't talk, if the cat's got your tongue."
The steady eyes leaped angrily, but there was still no answer, and he bent to take the fish off his hook, put on a fresh minnow, turned his back and tossed it into the pool.
"Hit hain't!"
He looked up again. She surely was a pretty little thing--and more, now that she was angry.
"I should say not," he said teasingly. "What did you say your name was?"
"What's YO' name?"
The fisherman laughed. He was just becoming accustomed to the mountain etiquette that commands a stranger to divulge himself first.
"My name's--Jack."
"An' mine's--Jill." She laughed now, and it was his time for surprise--where could she have heard of Jack and Jill?
His line rang suddenly.
"Jack," she cried, "you got a bite!"
He pulled, missed the strike, and wound in. The minnow was all right, so he tossed it back again.
"That isn't your name," he said.
"If 'tain't, then that ain't your'n?"
"Yes 'tis," he said, shaking his head affirmatively.
A long cry came down the ravine:
"J-u-n-e! eh--oh--J-u-n-e!" That was a queer name for the mountains, and the fisherman wondered if he had heard aright-- June.
The little girl gave a shrill answering cry, but she did not move.
"Thar now!" she said.
"Who's that--your Mammy?"
"No, 'tain't--hit's my step-mammy. I'm a goin' to ketch hell now." Her innocent eyes turned sullen and her baby mouth tightened.
"Good Lord!" said the fisherman, startled, and then he stopped-- the words were as innocent on her lips as a benediction.
"Have you got a father?" Like a flash, her whole face changed.
"I reckon I have."
"Where is he?"
"Hyeh he is!" drawled a voice from the bushes, and it had a tone that made the fisherman whirl suddenly. A giant mountaineer stood on the bank above him, with a Winchester in the hollow of his arm.
"How are you?" The giant's heavy eyes lifted quickly, but he spoke to the girl.
"You go on home--what you doin' hyeh gassin' with furriners!"
The girl shrank to the bushes, but she cried sharply back:
"Don't you hurt him now, Dad. He ain't even got a pistol. He ain't no--"
"Shet up!" The little creature vanished and the mountaineer turned to the fisherman, who had just put on a fresh minnow and tossed it into the river.
"Purty well, thank you," he said shortly. "How are you?"
"Fine!" was the nonchalant answer. For a moment there was silence and a puzzled frown gathered on the mountaineer's face.
"That's a bright little girl of yours--What did she mean by telling you not to hurt me?"
"You haven't been long in these mountains, have ye?"
"No--not in THESE mountains--why?" The fisherman looked around and was almost startled by the fierce gaze of his questioner.
"Stop that, please," he said, with a humourous smile. "You make me nervous."
The mountaineer's bushy brows came together across the bridge of his nose and his voice rumbled like distant thunder.
"What's yo' name, stranger, an' what's yo' business over hyeh?"
"Dear me, there you go! You can see I'm fishing, but why does everybody in these mountains want to know my name?"
"You heerd me!"
"Yes." The fisherman turned again and saw the giant's rugged face stern and pale with open anger now, and he, too, grew suddenly serious.
"Suppose I don't tell you," he said gravely. "What--"
"Git!" said the mountaineer, with a move of one huge hairy hand up the mountain. "An' git quick!"
The fisherman never moved and there was the click of a shell thrown into place in the Winchester and a guttural oath from the mountaineer's beard.
"Damn ye," he said hoarsely, raising the rifle. "I'll give ye--"
"Don't, Dad!" shrieked a voice from the