Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/51

 Killer—knew dad 'd do this and wanted to put him out of the way before he could testify before a court of law."

Thou hast not hated blood; even blood shall pursue thee," growled Uncle Alf.

"I knew last night this would happen," Hilma continued in a flat monotone. "I saw him against the sky when it was green and he was black. I felt him moving round in the dark. So I knew to-day—I knew"

"It was the voice of God what told you to come searching to-day, daughter," the man corrected. "Even as it was His voice come to me in sleep down to Henry Withers' place, saying, 'Rise up, Alpheus; go forth in the dawn and find a murdered man, that ye may comfort the fatherless and become an avenger of blood.

That phrase, an avenger of blood, launched the evangelist upon one of his fanatical flights, and he dinned the inexorable law of an eye for an eye. The girl, riding with her eyes on the mountains, stole an occasional glance at the ascetic face of the preacher; his steel-bright eyes fascinated her even as the swift surge of his speech stirred a deep response of primitive passions. For Uncle Alf hurled anathema at