the
window--betrayed neither concern nor curiosity. He let his eyes drop
to the smart boot that peeped from below her gown, and the thought of
his trying to identify it with the slipper he had picked up seemed to
him as ridiculous as his other misconceptions. He sank back gloomily
in his seat; by degrees the fatigue and excitement of the day began to
mercifully benumb his senses; twilight had fallen and the talk had
ceased. The lady had allowed her book to drop in her lap as the
darkness gathered, and had closed her eyes; he closed his own, and
slipped away presently into a dream, in which he saw the profile again
as he had seen it in the darkness of the hollow, only that this time it
changed to a full face, unlike the lady's or any one he had ever seen.
Then the window seemed to open with a rattle, and he again felt the
cool odors of the forest; but he awoke to find that the lady had only
opened her window for a breath of fresh air. It was nearly eight o'
clock; it would be an hour yet before the coach stopped at the next
station for supper; the passengers were drowsily nodding; he closed his
eyes and fell into a deeper sleep, from which he awoke with a start.

The coach had stopped!

CHAPTER IV.

"It can't be Three Pines yet," said a passenger's voice, in which the
laziness of sleep still lingered, "or else we've snoozed over five
mile. I don't see no lights; wot are we stoppin' for?" The other
passengers struggled to an upright position. One nearest the window
opened it; its place was instantly occupied by the double muzzle of a
shot-gun! No one moved. In the awestricken silence the voice of the
driver rose in drawling protestation.

"It ain't no business o' mine, but it sorter strikes me that you chaps
are a-playin' it just a little too fine this time! It ain't three
miles from Three Pine Station and forty men. Of course, that's your
lookout,--not mine!"

The audacity of the thing had evidently struck even the usually
taciturn and phlegmatic driver into his first expostulation on record.

"Your thoughtful consideration does you great credit," said a voice
from the darkness, "and shall be properly presented to our manager; but
at the same time we wish it understood that we do not hesitate to take
any risks in strict attention to our business and our clients. In the
mean time you will expedite matters, and give your passengers a chance
to get an early tea at Three Pines, by handing down that tr