akanya forest; told her minutely, omitting no detail. She
listened intently, breathlessly.

"When I rode away from that spot," he concluded, "it was with an
unspeakable load lifted from my mind, a load that had weighed upon it
for years. Everything was favourable. We had not been seen together,
for we entered the country by different ways, and our meeting was
entirely a chance one. He had found out somehow that I was bound for
Ezulwini, and had started to catch me there, in order to squeeze out
some more blackmail. He had missed his way and had wandered to where we
met. I had not missed mine, for I had mapped out a way through all that
wild part. When we did meet the first idea that flashed through my mind
was that now and here was a chance such as I should never get again.
Everything was favourable--the wild loneliness of the spot, seldom if
ever travelled, and the fact that we had not been seen together. I
would force him to sign a declaration which should put it out of his
power for ever to harm me. But he flatly refused, and the rest you
know. It was only afterwards that it occurred to me that the sequel was
the best that could have come about, for the declaration, being
unwitnessed, would probably have been worth nothing at all. I must have
been a bit off my head, or that would have occurred to me at the first.
Now, Verna, why don't you shrink from me?"

"Shrink from you?" and the clasp of her hand tightened on his. "It
would take a great deal more than this to make me even begin to think of
doing that. In fact, I can't see anything so very dreadful about it at
all. A blackmailer is the most pestilent vermin on earth, and
shooting's too good for him. Let me think. Ah! He tried to shoot you,
you said?"

"He certainly would have if I'd given him the slightest chance. Still,
there's no getting over the fact that I fully intended to shoot him in
the event of his persistently refusing to sign that paper."

"And he deserved it. Moreover, didn't you try to get him out of the
water?"

"Yes. I couldn't stand seeing even him finished off in such a beastly
manner. Afterwards it occurred to me that it was the best possible
thing that could have happened in that it would destroy all trace. You
understand?"

"Perfectly. But now, if the worst came to the worst, couldn't you make
it out a case of self-defence?"

"A very poor plea," he answered, with a gloomy shake of the head,
"especially under all