acken my name, bar my father's house to me, and then you will be
generous and--marry me?'"]

Jerry-Jo dropped his bold, dark eyes.

"I never cared for you, Jerry-Jo. I hate you, now!"

At this McAlpin raised his head and a fierce red coloured his face.

"You'll get over that!" he muttered. "Any port in a storm, you know.
You better not drive me now! I ain't--safe, and I've got you tight
for--to-night!"

Suddenly the pure flame of spirituality flashed into the soul of
Priscilla Glenn. Alone, undefended, facing a hideous possibility, beyond
which lay a black certainty of desolation, she rose supreme to protect
something that her rudely aroused womanhood must defend, even by death!

"You--beast!" she cried, and all her shrinking fear fell from her. "Go
back! Sit down! I have something to say to you--before----" She did not
finish, but the pause made Jerry-Jo understand that she recognized her
position.

"I'll stand here, by God!" he almost shouted, and came close.

The proximity of the rough, coarse body was the one thing the girl felt
she could not bear. She smelled the odour of his wet clothing, felt his
breath, and she shrank back a step.

"This--this body, Jerry-Jo McAlpin," she whispered, "is all you can
touch. That, I will kill to-morrow--the next day--it does not matter. But
the soul of me shall haunt you while you live. Night and day it shall
torment and clutch you until it brings your sinful spirit to--to God!"

"You--you devil!" cried McAlpin, all the superstitious fear of his mixed
blood chilling him. "You----" And then as if daring the fate she had it
in her power to evoke, he rushed toward her and clasped her close in his
strong arms. His face was bent over hers, his lips parted from his cruel
teeth, but he did not force them upon her.

So here she was--she, Priscilla Glenn, in the jaws of death, she who
would have laughed, danced, and sang her way straight into happiness!
Here she was, with what on ahead--if she lived?

She waited, she struggled, then she relaxed in the iron hold, and for a
moment, only a moment, lost the sense of reality. Presently words that
McAlpin was saying came to her in the black stillness of her
consciousness.

"I had--to have you! Now that I've shown you my power, I can wait until
you come whining to me. I ain't going to hurt you! I want you as you are
when you come a-begging of me. I only wanted to prove to you that--I've
got you!"

Again Priscilla was aware of the