lustrated weeklies. Those rotten posts, under that snarl of vines,
were a pergola. Any old carpenter can rebuild that--I can draw the plans
myself."

He skirted the lake. "Only to grub out some of the lilies--there's too
many of them--and straighten the rim--and weed the pebble margin to
give those green rocks a show. I'll build a little wharf below them to
dive from, and--yes, I'll stock it with spotted trout. Not just to yank
out with a barbed hook, but to make it inhabited. How well a couple of
white swans would look preening in the shade out there! The roof's gone
from that oval summer-house, but it's no trick to put another on."

He penetrated farther into the tangle and came out into a partially
cleared space shaded with great trees, where the grass was matted with
clover into a thick rug, sprinkled with designs worked in bluebells and
field-daisies, with here and there a flaunting poppy, like a scarlet
medallion. He was but a few hundred yards from the house, yet the
silence was so deep that there might have been no habitation within
fifty miles. All at once he stopped short; there was a sudden movement
in the thicket beyond--the sound of light fast footfalls, as of some one
running away.

He made a lunge for the dog, but with a growl Chum tore himself from the
restraining grasp and dashed into the bushes. "A child, no doubt," he
thought as he plunged in pursuit, "and that lubberly brute will scare it
half to death!"

He pulled up with an exclamation. In a narrow wood-path a little
way from him, partly hidden by a windfall, stood a girl, her skirt
transfixed with a wickedly jagged sapling. He saw instantly how it
had happened; the windfall had blocked the way, and she had sprung
clean over it, not noting the screened spear, which now held her as
effectually as any railroad spike. She was struggling with silent
helpless fury to release herself, wrenching viciously at the offending
stuff, which seemed ridiculously stout, and disregarding utterly the
bulldog, frisking madly about her feet with sharp joyous barks.

In another moment Valiant had reached her and met her face, flushed,
half defiant, her eyes a blue gleam of smoldering anger as she
desperately, almost savagely, thrust wild tendrils of flame-colored hair
beneath the broad curved brim of her straw hat. At her feet lay a great
armful of cape jessamines.

A little thrill, light and warm and joyous, ran through him. Until that
instant he had not recogn