usually leak, Hannibal?"

"Why, you ain't ever been out rowing in her, Miss Betty, have you?--and
there ain't no better fun than rowing a boat!" They had started down the
path.

"I used to think that, too, Hannibal; how do you suppose it is that when
people grow up they forget all about the really nice things they might
do?"

"What use is she if you don't go rowing in her?" persisted Hannibal.

"Oh, but it is used. Mr. Tom uses it in crossing to the other side where
they are clearing land for cotton. It saves him a long walk or ride
about the head of the bayou."

"Like I should take you out in her, Miss Betty?" demanded Hannibal with
palpitating anxiety.

They had entered the scattering timber when Betty paused suddenly with
a startled exclamation, and Hannibal felt her fingers close convulsively
about his. The sound she had heard might have been only the rustling
of the wind among the branches overhead in that shadowy silence, but
Betty's nerves, the placid nerves of youth and perfect health, were
shattered.

"Didn't you hear something, Hannibal?" she whispered fearfully.

For answer Hannibal pointed mysteriously, and glancing in the direction
he indicated, Betty saw a woman advancing along the path toward them.
The look of alarm slowly died out of his eyes.

"I think it's the overseer's niece," she told Hannibal, and they kept on
toward the boat.

The girl came rapidly up the path, which closely followed the irregular
line of the shore in its windings. Once she was seen to stop and glance
back over her shoulder, her attitude intent and listening, then she
hurried forward again. Just by the boat the three met.

"Good evening!" said Betty pleasantly.

The girl made no reply to this; she merely regarded Betty with a fixed
stare. At length she broke silence abruptly.

"I got something I want to say to you--you know who I am, I reckon?" She
was a girl of about Betty's own age, with a certain dark, sullen beauty
and that physical attraction which Tom, in spite of his vexed mood, had
taken note of earlier in the day.

"You are Bess Hicks," said Betty.

"Make the boy go back toward the house a spell--I got something I want
to say to you." Betty hesitated. She was offended by the girl's manner,
which was as rude as her speech. "I ain't going to hurt you--you needn't
be afraid of me, I got something important to say--send him off, I
tell you; there ain't no time to lose!" The girl stamped her foot
impatient