id Anne, "but on this I must. You must trust me with Diana,
doctor--Diana and July. They will take good care of me."

"I suppose I shall _have_ to yield, Miss Douglas. But I regret, regret
exceedingly, that I have not full authority over you. I feel it
necessary to say formally that your going is against my wishes and my
advice. And now, since you _will_ have your own way in any case, I must
do what I can for you."

An hour later, two mules were ascending the mountain-side, following an
old trail; Anne was on one, the tall grave Diana on the other. July
walked in front, with his gun over his shoulder.

"No danjah hyah," he assured them volubly; "soldiers doan' come up dis
yer way at all. Dey go draggin' 'long in de mud below always; seem to
like 'em."

But Anne was not thinking of danger. "Could we not go faster by the
road?" she asked.

"'Spec's we could, miss. But wudn't darst to, ef I was you."

"No, no, miss," said Diana. "Best keep along in dese yere woods; dey's
safe."

The hours were endless. At last it seemed to Anne as if they were not
moving at all, but merely sitting still in their saddles, while a
continuous procession of low trees and high bushes filed slowly past
them, now pointing upward, now slanting downward, according to the
nature of the ground. In reality they were moving forward, crossing a
spur of the mountain, but so dense was the foliage of the thicket, and
so winding the path, that they could not see three feet in any
direction, and all sense of advance was therefore lost. Anne fell into a
mental lethargy, which was troubled every now and then by that strange
sense of having seen particular objects before which occasionally haunts
the brain. Now it was a tree, now a bird; or was it that she had known
July in some far-off anterior existence, and that he had kicked a stone
from his path in precisely that same way?

It was late twilight when, after a long descent still shrouded in the
interminable thicket, the path came out suddenly upon a road, and Anne's
eyes seemed to herself to expand as the view expanded. She saw a valley,
the gray smoothness of water, and here and there roofs. July had stopped
the mules in the shadow.

"Can you tell me which house it mought be, miss?" he asked, in a low,
cautious tone.

"No," replied Anne. "But the person I am trying to find is named
Heathcote--Captain Heathcote. We must make inquiries."

[Illustration: "JULY WALKED IN FRONT, WITH HIS GUN OVER H