t answer," she heard him say.

Strength--anger--hatred flared up in her, and fiercely she struck the
hand down. Something in her wonderful eyes held McTaggart. They blazed
into his very soul.

"Bete noir!" she panted at him, freeing herself from the last touch of
his hands. "Beast--black beast!" Her voice trembled, and her face
flamed. "See--I came to show you my pool--and tell you what you wanted
to hear--and you--you--have crushed me like a beast--like a great
rock-- See! down there--it is my pool!"

She had not planned it like this. She had intended to be smiling, even
laughing, in this moment. But McTaggart had spoiled them--her carefully
made plans! And yet, as she pointed, the factor from Lac Bain looked
for an instant over the edge of the chasm. And then she
laughed--laughed as she gave him a sudden shove from behind.

"And that is my answer, M'sieu le Facteur from Lac Bain!" she cried
tauntingly as he plunged headlong into the deep pool between the rock
walls.

CHAPTER 14

From the edge of the open Pierrot saw what had happened, and he gave a
great gasp of horror. He drew back among the balsams. This was not a
moment for him to show himself. While his heart drummed like a hammer,
his face was filled with joy.

On her hands and knees the Willow was peering over the edge. Bush
McTaggart had disappeared. He had gone down like the great clod he was.
The water of her pool had closed over him with a dull splash that was
like a chuckle of triumph. He appeared now, beating out with his arms
and legs to keep himself afloat, while the Willow's voice came to him
in taunting cries.

"Bete noir! Bete noir! Beast! Beast--"

Savagely she flung small sticks and tufts of earth down at him; and
McTaggart, looking up as he gained his equilibrium, saw her leaning so
far over that she seemed almost about to fall. Her long braids hung
down into the chasm, gleaming in the sun. Her eyes were laughing while
her lips taunted him. He could see the flash of her white teeth.

"Beast! Beast!"

He began swimming, still looking up at her. It was a hundred yards down
the slow-going current to the beach of shale where he could climb out,
and a half of that distance she followed him, laughing and taunting
him, and flinging down sticks and pebbles. He noted that none of the
sticks or stones was large enough to hurt him. When at last his feet
touched bottom, she was gone.

Swiftly Nepeese ran back over the trail, and almost into