ound. "It has notes anyhow," said Beth with a laugh.

"Splendid!" said Peter. "And when I've told you what to do you can
practice here. You'll come soon?"

She nodded. "When?"

"To-morrow--sometime?" And then, "What's the matter with Wells?" he
asked.

She frowned. "He just asked me to marry him. It's the twenty-seventh
time."

"Oh----"

"I can't be botherin' with Shad--not on wash-day--or any other day," she
added as though in an afterthought.

Peter laughed. He was quite sure that nobody would ever make her do
anything she didn't want to do.

"He knows I was at the Cabin yesterday," she said in a low voice. "He
was watchin'."

Peter was silent a moment, glancing at the books he had just brought
her.

"Of course if he has any claim on you, perhaps----," he began, when she
broke in.

"Claim! He hasn't," she gasped. "I'll do as I please. And he'd better
quit pesterin' me or I'll----"

"What?"

She laughed.

"I'll put him through the clothes-wringer."

Peter grinned. "He almost looks as though you'd done that already."

And as she followed him to the door, "I thought I ought to tell you
about Shad. When he gets ugly--he's ugly an' no mistake."

"Do you still think he'll--er--swallow me at one gobble?" he asked.

She stared at him a moment and then laughed with a full throat. "I hope
he don't--at least not 'til I've had my singin' lessons."

"I think I can promise you that," said Peter.

She followed him out to the porch, where they looked about for Shad. He
had disappeared. And in the "Lizzie," which had been panting by the side
of the road, Peter was conducted by the soiled young man at the wheel to
Black Rock House.

Nothing unusual had happened in his absence, nor had any other message
or warning been posted, for Stryker, released for this duty, had
searched all the morning and found nothing. "Hawk" was waiting, biding
his hour.

Curiously enough, an astonishing calm seemed to have fallen over the
person of Jonathan K. McGuire. When Peter arrived he found his employer
seated on the portico in a wicker chair, smoking his after-supper cigar.
True, the day guards were posted near by and Stryker hovered as was his
wont, but the change in his employer's demeanor was so apparent that
Peter wondered how such a stolid-looking creature could ever have lost
his self-control. It was difficult to understand this metamorphosis
unless it could be that, having come to a decision and aware of the
prospe