lmost regretted when her first words dispelled the
illusion.

"It is dreadfully late," she said. "Pluto went very lame soon after I
left Macdonald's, and I knew if I went back for another horse he would
have insisted on riding home with me. I had slipped away while he was
in the granary. One can cross the bridge?"

"Not mounted!" said Winston. "There are only a few planks between the
stringers here and there, but, if you don't mind waiting, I can lead
your horse across."

He smiled a little, for the words seemed trivial and out of place in
face of the effect the girl's appearance had on him, but she glanced at
him questioningly.

"No!" she said. "Now, I would have gone round by the old bridge, only
that Allardyce told me you let him ride across this afternoon."

"Still," and the man stopped a moment, "it was daylight then, you see."

Maud Barrington laughed a little, for his face was visible and she
understood the slowness of his answer. "Is that all? It is moonlight
now."

[Illustration: Maud Barrington laughed a little.]

"No," said Winston dryly, "but one is apt to make an explanation too
complete occasionally. Will you let me help you down?"

Maud Barrington held out her hands, and when he swung her down watched
him tramp away with the horse, with a curious smile. A light
compliment seldom afforded her much pleasure, but the man's grim
reserve had now and then piqued more than her curiosity, though she was
sensible that the efforts she occasionally made to uncover what lay
behind it were not without their risk. Then he came back, and turned
to her very gravely.

"Let me have your hand," he said.

Maud Barrington gave it to him, and hoped the curious little thrill
that ran through her when his hard fingers closed upon her palm did not
communicate itself to him. She also noticed that he moved his head
sharply a moment, and then looked straight in front again. Then the
birches seemed to fall away beneath them, and they moved out across the
dim gully with the loosely-laid planking rattling under their feet,
until they came to a strip scarcely three feet wide which spanned a
gulf of blackness in the shadow of the trees.

"Hold fast!" said Winston, with a trace of hoarseness. "You are sure
you feel quite steady?"

"Of course!" said the girl, with a little laugh, though she recognized
the anxiety in his voice, and felt his hand close almost cruelly on her
own. She was by no means timorous, a