, with brotherly brusqueness.

As these questions were all uttered in the same breath, Eugenia replied
to them collectively. "It was so hot that I kept along the bank here,
while you were on the other side. I heard the trickle of water somewhere
down there, and searching for it my foot slipped. This gentleman"--she
indicated Bray--"was on a little sort of a trail there, and assisted me
back to the road again."

The two men and the woman turned and stared at Bray with a look of
curiosity that changed quickly into a half contemptuous unconcern. They
saw a youngish sort of man, with a long mustache, a two days' growth of
beard, a not overclean face, that was further streaked with red on the
temple, a torn flannel shirt, that showed a very white shoulder beside
a sunburnt throat and neck, and soiled white trousers stuck into muddy
high boots--in fact, the picture of a broken-down miner. But their
unconcern was as speedily changed again into resentment at the perfect
ease and equality with which he regarded them, a regard the more
exasperating as it was not without a suspicion of his perception of some
satire or humor in the situation.

"Ahem! very much obliged, I am sure. I--er"--

"The lady has thanked me," interrupted Bray, with a smile.

"Did you fall far?" said the younger man to Eugenia, ignoring Bray.

"Not far," she answered, with a half appealing look at Bray.

"Only a few feet," added the latter, with prompt mendacity, "just a
little slip down."

The three new-comers here turned away, and, surrounding Eugenia,
conversed in an undertone. Quite conscious that he was the subject of
discussion, Bray lingered only in the hope of catching a parting glance
from Eugenia. The words "YOU do it," "No, YOU!" "It would come better
from HER," were distinctly audible to him. To his surprise, however,
she suddenly broke through them, and advancing to him, with a dangerous
brightness in her beautiful eyes, held out her slim hand. "My father,
Mr. Neworth, my brother, Harry Neworth, and my aunt, Mrs. Dobbs," she
said, indicating each one with a graceful inclination of her handsome
head, "all think I ought to give you something and send you away. I
believe that is the way they put it. I think differently! I come to
ask you to let me once more thank you for your good service to me
to-day--which I shall never forget." When he had returned her firm
handclasp for a minute, she coolly rejoined the discomfited group.

"She's no sa