It was a combination of facts difficult to get away from without certain conclusions, but this girl who was so near to him that he could almost feel her breath did not appear fully to comprehend their significance.

She was looking at him with wide-open, wondering eyes, and when he had finished she said again: "My mother is dead.

And my father is dead, too.

And my aunt is dead--up at the Nest.

There isn't any one left but my uncle Hauck, and he is a brute.