At length, after a silence, the girl broke forth. "Air Flukey in yer eyes, Screechy?"
"Yep, Flea, and so be you; but there ain't much for ye, savin' that ye go a long journey lookin' for a good land."
Bending her head nearer, Flea coaxed, "What good land, Screechy dear?"
"Yer's and Flukey's, Flea."
"Where air it?"
"Down behind the college hill, many a stretch for yer short legs from the squatter's settlement, and many a day when bread's short and water's plenty, many a night when the cold'll bite yer legs, and many a tear--"
"Be we leavin' Pappy Lon?" demanded the girl.
"Yep."
"Forever and forever?"
"For Flukey, yep; but for yerself--"
Flea stared in speechless wonder and fright. "I don't want to stay without Flukey!" she cried.
"I ain't a tellin' ye what ye want to do; only how the shadders run. But that's a weary day off. The good land be yers and Flukey's for the seekin' of it."
"Air Flukey goin' to be catched a thievin'?"
"Yep, some day."
"With Pappy Lon?"
"Nope, with yerself, Flea."
"I ain't no thief," replied Flea sulkily. "I ain't never took nothin', not so much as a chicken! And Flukey wouldn't nuther if Pappy Lon didn't make him."
From behind Screech Owl's shrouding gray hair two black eyes glittered.
"The good land, the good land!" whispered the madwoman. "It be all comin' for yerself and Flukey."
"Be I goin' to--" Flea sat back on her bare toes, her face suddenly darkening with rage. "I won't go with him! I won't, Screechy, if he was in every old eye in yer head! I won't, so there!"
The darkness hid from Screech Owl the glint in Flea's eyes.
"Who be it Lon said you was goin' with, Flea?"
Scraggy must have forgotten her conversation with Lem but an hour or two before; for she evinced no knowledge of any man interested in Flea.
"A one-armed man. Pappy says I'm to be his woman. Be I, Screechy?"
"Nope; but I see a hook a whirlin' in the air into the good land, a whirlin' and a whirlin' after ye. I see it a stealin' on ye in the night when ye think ye're safe. I see the sharp p'int of it a stickin' into yer soft flesh--"
"Don't, don't!" pleaded Flea in a smothered voice. "Ye said as how I were goin' with Flukey to a good land down behind the college hill."