Judy went slowly toward the woman, her beady eyes fixed and staring as
though at some ghostly vision. The woman rose to her feet as Judy paused
before her.
"Be you-all Brian Kent's woman?" demanded Judy.
The excited exclamation from the company and the manner of the woman
suddenly aroused the mountain girl to a realization of what she had done
in speaking Brian Kent's name. With an expression of frightened dismay,
she turned to escape; but the group of intensely interested spectators
drew closer. Every one waited for Martha to speak.
"Yes," she said, slowly, watching the mountain girl; "I am Mrs. Brian
Kent. Do you know my husband?"
Judy's black beady eyes shifted slyly from one face to another, and her
twisted body moved uneasily.
"No, ma'm; I ain't a-sayin' I knows him exactly. I done heard tell 'bout
him nigh 'bout a year ago, when there was some men from the city come
through here a-huntin' him. Everybody 'lows as how he was drowned at
Elbow Rock."
"The body was never found, though," murmured one of the men in the
group.
"Who lives in that little log house over there, Judy?" Harry Green asked
suddenly, pointing.
"There? Oh, that there's Auntie Sue's place. I 'lowed everybody knowed
that," returned the girl.
"Who is Auntie Sue?" came the next question.
One of the women answered, before Judy could speak: "Auntie Sue is that
old-maid school-teacher they told us about.
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