ly he
held her closer, as though by the presence of his strength she might
feel secure.

"Mac," she gasped, convulsively, "Mac--is dead!"

"How?" He asked it calmly; with a fearful, avenging calm; knowing that
in the way Mac died would be revealed a tragedy.

She tried, but could not answer, and simply leaned against him sobbing
great silent sobs which shook her body and tore his soul with anguish.
The love he had felt for her was slight to the passion now demanding
utterance; yet his lips set resolutely to suppress any word of
endearment. He knew that she had come only to a friend, a big brother,
someone to sustain her, and he knew too well how deadly the suggestion
of anything more would be.

"Can't you tell me?" he asked gently.

"That fiendish man jumped out and caught my horse's bridle! Mac sprang
at him, and he dropped the bridle, and I tried to ride him down, but he
had a club and knocked my poor horse flat;--I jumped up, and Mac was
fighting him terribly, but I knew he would kill Mac--and then--and
then--I was so frightened I ran as fast as I could back here!"

"Thank God," he whispered, in a voice which must surely have told her
how he, too, was suffering.

She gathered her strength and stood more firmly, while he let his arms
quietly fall to his sides.

"Would you like Bob and Ann to come over?"

"You could take me home, couldn't you?" she wavered. "They thought I was
going to stay here for dinner, and it's no use frightening them with
such a telephone message."

Turning, they went slowly, silently, toward the house, but near the
porch he hesitated, listening; then turned her about--for coming toward
them across the lawn, limping, panting, with his nose to the ground but
his stumpy tail belligerently up, was Mac.

She gave a low cry and knelt upon the grass, her arms out to receive
him, and he dashed into them with a yelp of joy. The things she
whispered then were exactly those which Brent would have given the
riches of the earth to have heard her say to him; and Mac replied with
all his doggy eloquence, furiously wiggling his body and making futile
attempts to lick her face. Brent stood silently by, and for the first
time in his life--at least the first time in his remembrance--something
mysteriously hot and wet slipped down his cheek.

An hour later they drove into Flat Rock, leading her horse which was
found grazing by the roadside. Back at Arden the Colonel and Dale, each
with a high powere