ill tell you nothing. It is impossible for me to say why your
life is in danger."

"But you know?"

"Yes."

He seated her again in the chair beside the table and sat down opposite
her.

"Will you tell me who you are?"

She hesitated, twisting her fingers nervously in a silken strand of her
hair. "Will you?" he persisted.

"If I tell you who I am," she said at last, "you will know who is
threatening your life."

He stated at her in astonishment.

"The devil, you say!" The words slipped from his lips before he could
stop them. For a second time the girl rose from her chair.

"You will go?" she entreated. "You will go to-morrow?"

Her hand was on the latch of the door.

"You will go?"

He had risen, and was lighting a cigar over the chimney of the lamp.
Laughing, he came toward her.

"Yes, surely I am going--to see you safely home." Suddenly he turned
back to the lounge and belted on his revolver and holster. When he
returned she barred his way defiantly, her back against the door.

"You can not go!"

"Why?"

"Because--" He caught the frightened flutter of her voice again.
"Because they will kill you!"

The low laugh that he breathed in her hair was more of joy than fear.

"I am glad that you care," he whispered to her softly.

"You must go!" she still persisted.

"With you, yes," he answered.

"No, no--to-morrow. You must go back to Le Pas--back into the South.
Will you promise me that?"

"Perhaps," he said. "I will tell you soon." She surrendered to the
determination in his voice and allowed him to pass out into the night
with her. Swiftly she led him along a path that ran into the deep gloom
of the balsam and spruce. He could hear the throbbing of her heart and
her quick, excited breathing as she stopped, one of her hands clasping
him nervously by the arm.

"It is not very far--from here," she whispered "You must not go with me.
If they saw me with you--at this hour--" He felt her shuddering
against him.

"Only a little farther," he begged.

She surrendered again, hesitatingly, and they went on, more slowly than
before, until they came to where a few faint lights in the camp were
visible ahead of them.

"Now--now you must go!"

Howland turned as if to obey. In an instant the girl was at his side.

"You have not promised," she entreated. "Will you go--to-morrow?"

In the luster of the eyes that were turned up to him in the gloom
Howland saw again the strange, sweet power that had