At the big wood-pile half a stone's throw away he saw the shimmer of her brown curls in the sun, and a glimpse of her white face as it was turned for an instant toward the cabin.

In his gladness he would have leaped out, but the curse of a voice he had learned to dread held him back.
A man had come out of the cabin, and close behind the man, a woman.

The man was a long, lean, cadaverous-faced creature, and Peter knew that the devil was in him as he stood there at the cabin door.

His breath, if one had stood close enough to smell it, was heavy with whiskey.

Tobacco juice stained the corners of his mouth, and his one eye gleamed with an animal-like exultation as he nodded toward the girl with the shining curls.
"Mooney says he'll pay seven-fifty for her when he gets his tie-money from the Government, an' he paid me fifty down," he said.