realising her action,
timidity and embarrassment rushed upon her.

Charley understood, and again his impulse was to say what was in his
heart and dare all; but resolution possessed him, and he said quickly:

"Once, Rosalie, you saved me--from death perhaps. Once your hands helped
my pain--here." He touched his breast. "Your words now, and what you do,
they still help me--here... but in a different way. The trouble is in
my heart, Rosalie. You are glad of my confidence? Well, I will give
you more.... I cannot go back to my old life. To do so would injure
others--some who have never injured me and some who have. That is why.
That is why I do not wish to be taken to Quebec now on a false charge.
That is all I can say. Is it enough?"

She was about to answer, but Jo Portugais entered, exclaiming.
"M'sieu'," he cried, "men are coming with the Seigneur and Cure."

Charley nodded at Jo, then turned to Rosalie. "You need not be seen if
you go out by the back way, Mademoiselle." He held aside the bear-skin
curtain of the door that led into the next room.

There was a frightened look in her face. "Do not fear for me," he
continued. "It will come right--somehow. You have done more for me than
any one has ever done or ever will do. I will remember till the last
moment of my life. Good-bye."

He laid a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her from the room.

"God protect you! The Blessed Virgin speak for you! I will pray for
you," she whispered.

CHAPTER XXXI. CHARLEY STANDS AT BAY

Charley turned quickly to the woodsman. "Listen," he said, and he told
Jo how things stood.

"You will not hide, M'sieu'? There is time," Jo asked.

"I will not hide, Jo."

"What will you do?"

"I'll decide when they come."

There was silence for a moment, then the sound of voices on the
hill-side.

Charley's soul rose up in revolt against the danger that faced him--not
against personal peril, but the danger of being dragged back again into
the life he had come from, with all that it involved--the futility of
this charge against him! To be the victim of an error--to go to the bar
of justice with the hand of injustice on his arm!

All at once the love of this new life welled up in him, as a spring of
water overflows its bounds. A voice kept ringing in his ears, "I
will pray for you." Subconsciously his mind kept saying,
"Rosalie--Rosalie--Rosalie!" There was nothing now that he would not
do to avert his being taken away upon