In fact, his abstraction one moment, his intense nervousness the next, his harder drinking and fiercer harangues with the men, grew to be distressing for Ellen.

They presaged his further deterioration and the ever-present evil of the growing feud.
One day Jorth rode home in the early morning, after an absence of two nights.

Ellen heard the clip-clop of, horses long before she saw them.
"Hey, Ellen! Come out heah," called her father.
Ellen left her work and went outside.

A stranger had ridden in with her father, a young giant whose sharp-featured face appeared marked by ferret-like eyes and a fine, light, fuzzy beard.

He was long, loose jointed, not heavy of build, and he had the largest hands and feet Ellen bad ever seen.