around the corner of the cabin, and was gone.

Sibyl Andres faced James Rutlidge, without speaking. She was not afraid,
now, as she had always been in his presence, until that day when he had so
plainly declared himself to her and she met his advances with a gun. The
convict's warning to the man who could send him back to prison for
practically the remaining years of his life, had served its purpose in
giving her courage. She did not believe that, for the present, Rutlidge
would dare to do otherwise than heed the warning.

[Illustration: Still she did not speak.]

James Rutlidge regarded her with a smile of triumphant satisfaction.
"Really," he said, at last, "you do not seem at all glad to see me."

She made no reply.

"I am frightfully hungry"--he continued, with a short laugh, moving toward
her as she stood in the door of the cabin--"I've been walking since
midnight I was in such a hurry to get here that I didn't even stop for
breakfast."

She stepped out, and moved away from the door.

With another laugh, he entered the cabin.

Presently, when he had helped himself to food, he went back to the girl
who had seated herself on a log, at the farther side of the little
clearing. "You seem fairly comfortable here," he said.

She did not speak.

"You and my man get along nicely, I take it. He has been kind to you?"

Still she did not speak.

He spoke sharply, "Look here, my girl, you can't keep this up, you know.
Say what you have to say, and let's get it over."

All the time, she had been regarding him intently--her wide, blue eyes
filled with wondering pain. "How could you?" she said at last. "Oh, how
could you do such a thing?"

His face flushed. "I did it because you have driven me mad, I guess. From
the first time I saw you, I have wanted you. I have tried again and
again, in the last three years, to approach you; but you would have
nothing to do with me. The more you spurned me, the more I wanted you.
Then this man, King, came. You were friendly enough, with him. It made me
wild. From that day when I met you in the mountains above Lone Cabin, I
have been ready for anything. I determined if I could not win you by fair
means, I would take you in any way I could. When my opportunity came, I
took advantage of it. I've got you. The story is already started that you
were the painter's mistress, and that you have committed suicide. You
shall stay here, a while, until the belief that you are dead has become