my wondersome, wondersome wood, and drawn _you_ after me!'"

"Norah, stop."

"Why? You're glad too, aren't you? I _know_ you are. I knew it when
you came walking so tall and so quiet; an' I thought 'This is it--what
I always hoped for--wonders to happen to me in Hadleigh Wood.' But I
was afraid of the wood once--more afraid than Granny knew. I wouldn't
tell her."

"What d'you mean? What wouldn't you tell her?"

"What I'd seen here."

"What had you seen?"

"I kep' it as my great secret--but I'll tell you, because you've found
out all my secrets, now, haven't you?"

"Well, let's hear it."

"I saw a man hiding, crawling, ready to spring out on me."

"Oh. When was that?"

"Ages and ages ago, when I was almost a baby."

"Heft yourself, Norah. I want to get up, an' stretch ma legs."

The gentle soothing fire had faded--an invincible coldness crept on
slow-moving blood from his heart to his brain. The girl was safe now.
He would not injure her to-night. He got up, and stood looking down at
her.

"Well," he said quietly, "let's hear some more. What sort of a man was
it?"

"A wild man--with water dripping off him. He had crept out of the
river."

"Do you mean--a sort of ghost or demon?"

"I didn't know."

"Not like an ordinary man--not like any other man you've ever seen?"

"Oh, no. All wild--fierce and dreadful. Not standing upright--more
like an animal in the shape of a man."

"But surely you told your Granny, or somebody?"

"No. I've never told a soul except you."

"An' you say you were scared, though?"

"Oh, I was, rarely scared."

"Then you must have told your Granny, or one of 'em. You've forgotten,
but I expect you told people at the time."

"I didn't. I didn't dare to at first. I thought he'd come after me, if
I did. I was afraid."

Dale grunted again. "An' d'you mean to say you'd the grit in you to
come back here all the same, after that?"

"Not for a little while. Then I did. I was all a twitter, so
frightened still, but I was fascinated for to do it too--just to see."

"But you never saw him again."

"No, and then I began to think it was all a fancy. D'you think it was
a fancy, and not real?"

"My dear girl, no;" and Dale shrugged his shoulders. "You prob'ly saw
some poor devil of a tramp who had slept here, and was getting on the
move after his night's rest." Then he took a step away from the tree,
and spoke curtly. "Come. We must go home."

Norah sprang off the tree, hurri