e prospect of the long
night drive through the woods, to which possibly he objected as much as
I did.

It was already growing dark when we started, and within a few moments we
were out of the little settlement and entering the woods. With me I
had a revolver I had long since learned to use, but which I very rarely
carried. I had hesitated to bring it now--had even left home without it;
and then, impelled by some impulse I never afterward ceased to bless,
had returned for it and dropped it into my hand-bag.

I sat on the back seat of the wagon, directly behind the driver, and for
a time, as we entered the darkening woods, his great shoulders blotted
out all perspective as he drove on in stolid silence. Then, little by
little, they disappeared like a rapidly fading negative. The woods were
filled with Norway pines, hemlocks, spruce, and tamaracks-great, somber
trees that must have shut out the light even on the brightest days.
To-night the heavens held no lamps aloft to guide us, and soon the
darkness folded around us like a garment. I could see neither the driver
nor his horses. I could hear only the sibilant whisper of the trees and
the creak of our slow wheels in the rough forest road.

Suddenly the driver began to talk, and at first I was glad to hear the
reassuring human tones, for the experience had begun to seem like a bad
dream. I replied readily, and at once regretted that I had done so,
for the man's choice of topics was most unpleasant. He began to tell me
stories of the stockades--grim stories with horrible details, repeated
so fully and with such gusto that I soon realized he was deliberately
affronting my ears. I checked him and told him I could not listen to
such talk.

He replied with a series of oaths and shocking vulgarities, stopping his
horses that he might turn and fling the words into my face. He ended
by snarling that I must think him a fool to imagine he did not know
the kind of woman I was. What was I doing in that rough country, he
demanded, and why was I alone with him in those black woods at night?

Though my heart missed a beat just then, I tried to answer him calmly.

"You know perfectly well who I am," I reminded him. "And you understand
that I am making this journey to-night because I am to preach to-morrow
morning and there is no other way to keep my appointment."

He uttered a laugh which was a most unpleasant sound.

"Well," he said, coolly, "I'm damned if I'll take you. I've got