Then he fell to polishing the nails of one hand on the palm of the other.

At last he answered, "If ye'd asked me that this time last year, I'd have said 'it's the drink,' at a jump.

But times this summer, this morning, for instance, when he hadna a drop in three weeks, and dinna want ane, when he could have come wi' me to town, and wouldna, and there were devils calling him from the ground, and the trees, and the sky, out in the open cornfield, it looked bad." The priest's eyes were boring into Dannie's sick face.

"How did it look ?" he asked briefly.
"It looked," said Dannie, and his voice dropped to a whisper, "it looked like he might carry a damned ugly secret, that it would be better fra him if ye, at least, knew." "And the nature of that secret ?" Dannie shook his head.

"Couldna give a guess at it! Known him all his life.