Eli Porter was in the back of the store looking at a roll of barbed wire he was planning on buying for his new piece of fence, so Hank Dalton did not notice him as he stalked into the store in the late afternoon. He had the air of an aristocrat but the looks and slang of a western cowboy.

"Howdy ever' body," he said.

"Same to you." Came from a half a dozen loafers that were lounging about the little store that sold everything from sour kraut to lady's silk hose.

"Think you're smart; it is jest a good-feelin' to know that the dam' thing is all paid for. Lordy, I had some fun in it this mornin!'"

"What did you do, chase a skirt?"

"No," he grinned, "I wuz jest comin' down from over the pass. I came to a sharp turn and there I run slab dab into three buggy loads of high schoolers headed for Sulphide Springs, they said. Dam' near scared the foxy horses to death. Hee, hee!" He laughed. Showing his ugly teeth that were stained with tobacco juice.

"Whose ho'ses wiz they?" asked an interested listener.

"Everett Whitmer's, I gess, anyhow, that Whitmer kid was drivin' 'em, big as a king and by his side wuz that cute Porter gal, Eli's second one."

"That boy's lucky if he wins her, she is a peach," one of the men remarked. "I wish I could cabbage on to her myself."

A sudden hush fell over the crowd as Eli Porter strode into view and paid the clerk for the roll of barbed wire, then with a grunt, he hurried out of the store carrying the wire with him.

He climbed into the buggy and beat his horses sharply with the ends of the lines. He was angry to think that his daughter was being talked about so freely by no-account loafers in a public place. When he came to the corner, he turned his horses toward the mountain road instead of toward home. He would go and bring that shameful girl back in his own buggy. The idea of her being with Eugene Whitmer burned him up; if she had been riding with some nice boy like Philip Dreyer it would not have been so bad. He rode along the beautiful mountain road without seeing the trees or the rocks of many hues. The birds and squirrels meant nothing to him. When he had gone about four miles, he heard singing and laughter ahead of him and he knew he was soon going to meet the young folks. He would hide his anger until he got her home; yes, in front of the high school students he must hold his temper.

In Gene's buggy, the ones on the back seat dared Gene to put his arm around the pretty blushing girl at his side. Miss Birch would not see as she was in the last buggy quite a ways back. He took up the dare and had his arm lying lovingly around Laura Mae's shoulders when he made a turn that brought them face to face with Eli Porter. Frightfully embarrassed, Gene removed his arm and Laura Mae's cheeks turned crimson.

When the buggies were side by side, they both pulled in the horses as Eli gave the order. "Stop! Laura Mae, come with me back into the timber." His command was in a moderate tone. The girl immediately climbed down from the seat, giving Gene a perplexed look mingled with fear for what was to come. Gene wished there was a hole or something to hide in. If he had not had his arm around her, it would not have been so bad. There was nothing to do now but face humiliation and drive on. It worried him about Eli taking her into the timber, maybe he was so mad he would take her out there and kill her, he had read of things like that.

When Eli was even with the third buggy, in which Philip was riding, he had the driver stop.

"Philip," he called. "Wasn't it up in here somewhere that you and Charles Luden run onto that patch of cedars that were so good for fence posts?"

"Yes, sir," Phil answered politely, "They are about a mile from here, I can show you right where they are if you want me to."

"I wish you would, seein' as you are right this close." Philip had beat him to it, he was just going to ask the boy to come show him, not that he needed more posts, but that he wanted Laura Mae to be with Philip. Philip climbed down and limped around to the side of Eli's buggy. He could have shouted aloud over the victory as he took a seat by the side of the pretty but sober-faced girl. Laura Mae's mouth was set and there was a gleam of anger in her eyes. She had told Phil that she would go home the way she had come. She wished that her father had chosen to whip her rather than this, she was sure that she hated Philip Dreyer, she could have slapped the smile right off his face. Eli grinned at Philip as he tapped the horses lightly with the ends of the lines and the buggy rolled along the gradual slope of mountain road.