the
Valkyries.'"

"I've half a mind to take that wager," said Geraldine, very pink and
bright-eyed. "I think I will take it if----"

"Please don't, dear," said Kathleen anxiously. "The keepers say that a
wounded boar is perfectly horrid sometimes."

"Dangerous?" Her eyes glimmered brighter still.

"Certainly, a wounded boar is dangerous. I heard Miller say----"

"Bosh!" said Scott. "They run away from you every time. Besides,
Geraldine isn't going to have enough sporting blood in her to take that
bet and make good."

Something in the quick flush and tilt of her head reminded Scott of the
old days when their differences were settled with eight-ounce gloves.
The same feeling possessed his sister, thrilled her like a sudden,
unexpected glimpse of a happiness which apparently had long been ended
for ever.

"Oh, Scott," she exclaimed, still thrilling, "it _is_ like old times to
hear you try to bully me. It's so long since I've had enough spirit to
defy you. But I do now!--oh, yes, I do! Why, I believe that if we had
the gloves here, I'd make you fight me or take back what you said about
my not having any sporting spirit!"

He laughed: "I was thinking of that, too. You're a good sport, Sis.
Don't bother to take that wager----"

"I _do_ take it!" she cried; "it's like old times and I love it. Now,
Scott, I'll show you a boar before we go to town or I'll buy you a
horse. No backing out; what's said can't be unsaid, remember:

"King, king, double king,
Can't take back a given thing!
Queen, queen, queen of queens,
What she promises she means!"

That was a very solemn incantation in nursery days; she laughed a little
in tender tribute to the past.

Scott was a trifle perturbed. He glanced uneasily at Kathleen, who told
him very plainly that he had contrived to make her anxious and unhappy.
Then she fell back into step with Geraldine, letting Scott wander
disconsolately forward:

"Dear," she said, passing one arm around the younger girl, "I didn't
quite dare to object too strongly. You looked so--so interested, so
deliciously defiant--so like your real self----"

"I feel like it to-day, Kathleen; let me turn back in my own
footsteps--if I can. I've been trying so very hard to--to get back to
where there was no--no terror in the world."

"I know. But, darling, you won't run into any danger, will you?"

"Do you call a hard-hit beast a danger? I've wounded a more terrible one
than any boar that e