"See here, son"; and the smooth tones filled Billy with an old fear; "that was all a big mistake. My hand was out of the game. St. Angé had taken the nerve out of me. I've got my steam up now." It was Jared Birkdale! and Billy had hoped he was never to see the man again. From his babyhood up, a look from Jared had had power to quell him when a blow from another might fail.
"Well, I ain't got nothing more to give you." Jude sounded sullen and ugly.
Through a crack in the floor Billy could see that it was Jude who was preparing the evening meal, while Jared, as usual, was taking his ease, and discoursing at his leisure.
"You've got more to give than what you know Jude, my boy. What you doing here, anyway?"
"You see what I'm doing. Here, take this hunk of bread, and come nearer so I can flip the bacon on."
The sight and smell made Billy's mouth water, even while something in him foretold danger.
"Now, see here, Jude." Jared spoke through a full mouth. "You and me can't afford to work at cross purposes. Where we failed once, we are going to succeed next time."
"You darsn't show your face down there beyond the woods again, and you know it." Jude spoke doggedly. "They was after us both. Besides I can't stand transplanting. It would be the death of me. It nearly was."
"Don't be white-livered, Jude. You see the laws have changed more than any one could have thought, while I was browsing away in St. Angé. That's where I made my mistake. I ought to have taken time and got the lay of the land 'fore I beckoned to you; but it looked safe enough, and I had to take, or leave the Joint, sudden. How could any man know it was spotted, and so had to be got rid of? It was one on us and no mistake.
"Fill up my cup, Jude, you're a tasty one with cooking."
Jude obeyed and muttered as he did so: "Luck or no luck, I ain't got nothing, nor ever will have again, so that's an end of it."
"I'm going to St. Angé." There was defiance in Jude's tone--defiance and a sort of shame; Jude had again lost his grip.
And now Billy could see through his peephole that Jude started into life.
"That's it, Jude. Now let's get down to business. Having to hide somewhere after that little unpleasantness down State, I ran up to St. Angé. Knowing the way about, it was a better place than some others, and I could keep from sight and find things out. I stopped at Laval's haunted shack." Billy shivered. "I kept clear of my place."