gers, "Johnny may fall heir to an apoplectic fit and fall on a
horse thereby inducing him to run away into a swamp and sink in
quicksand. I may be kidnapped and held for ransom in the wilds of
Connecticut and the van may burn up some night when I'm asleep in it.
Then I may eat poison berries in a fit of absent-mindedness, I may fall
into a river while I'm fishing, forget how to swim, and drown, Johnny
may gather amanitas and kill us both, and something or other may bite
me. There are one or two other little things like forest fires, floods
and brigands--"

"Help!" murmured Philip.

"Can you add anything to that?" demanded Diane politely.

Philip laughed. Diane, delicately sarcastic, was irresistible.

"There is the bullet--" he reminded gravely.

"_Please_!" begged Diane faintly.

Philip flushed with a sense of guilt.

"Well," he owned, "I have bothered you a lot about it, that's a fact!
But it sticks so in my mind. There's something else--"

"Yes?" said Diane discouragingly.

"Didn't you tell me yesterday that you'd had a feeling some one had
been spying on your camp?"

"Yes," said Diane in serious disapproval. "I did. I get seizures of
confidential lunacy once in a while. Are you going to fuss about that?"

"No," said Philip gently. "But the knife and the bullet and that have
made me wonder--a lot. After all," he regretted sincerely, "my notions
are very vague and formless, but I feel so strongly about them
that--urging my friendship for Carl as my sole excuse for unasked
advice to his cousin--"

"Yes?"

Philip laid aside his pipe with a sigh. The crisp music of his lady's
voice was not encouraging.

"I do hope you'll forgive me," he said quietly, "but I'm going to urge
you to abandon your trip to Florida!"

"Mr. Poynter!" flashed Diane indignantly. "The bump on your head has
had a relapse. Better let Johnny go for the doctor again."

"I know I'm infernally presumptuous," acknowledged Philip flushing,
"but I'm terribly in earnest."

Diane's eyes, wide, black, rebuking, scanned his troubled face askance.

"I ought to be exceedingly angry," she said slowly, "and if it wasn't
for the bump, like as not I would be--but I'm not."

"I'm truly grateful," said Philip with a sigh of relief. And added to
himself, "Philip, old top, you're in for it."

"Why," exclaimed Diane, "I've never been so happy in my life as I have
been here by this beautiful river!"

"Nor I!" said Philip truthfully.