l done, her brief rebuke when the red
dog, galloping recklessly down wind, jumped a ground-rattler and came
within a hair's breadth of being bitten.

"The little devil!" said Hamil, looking down at the twisting reptile
which he had killed with a palmetto stem. "Why, Shiela, he has no
rattles at all."

"No, only a button. Dig a hole and bury the head. Fangs are always fangs
whether their owner is dead or alive."

So Hamil scooped out a trench with his hunting-knife and they buried the
little ground-rattler while both dogs looked on, growling.

Cardross and Gray had remounted; Bulow cast out a brace of pointers for
them, and they were already far away. Presently the distant crack of
their guns announced that fresh bevies had been found beyond the branch.

The guide, Carter, rode out, bringing Shiela and Hamil their horses and
relieving the latter's pockets of a dozen birds; announcing a halt for
luncheon at the same time in a voice softly neglectful of _I's_ and
_R's_, and musical with aspirates.

As they followed him slowly toward the wagon which stood half a mile
away under a group of noble pines, Hamil began in a low voice:

"I've got to say this, Shiela: I never saw more perfect sportsmanship
than yours; and, if only for that, I love you with all my heart."

"What a boyish thing to say!" But she coloured deliciously.

"You don't care whether I love you--that way, do you?" he asked
hopefully.

"N-no."

"Then--I can wait."

She turned toward him, confused.

"Wait?" she repeated.

"Yes--wait; all my life, if it must be."

"There is nothing to wait for. Don't say such things to me. I--it's
difficult enough for me now--to think what to do--You will not speak to
me again that way, will you? Because, if you do, I must send you
away.... And that will be--hard."

"Once," he said, "you spoke about men--how they come crashing through
the barriers of friendship. Am I like that?"

She hesitated, looked at him.

"There were no barriers."

"No barriers!"

"None--to keep you out. I should have seen to it; I should have been
prepared; but you came so naturally into my friendship--inside the
barriers--that I opened my eyes and found you there--and remembered, too
late, alas--"

"Too late?"

"Too late to shut you out. And you frightened me last night; I tried to
tell you--for your own sake; I was terrified, and I told you what I have
never before told a living soul--that dreadful, hopeless, nightmare
thing