t. May I tie it up for you?"

He held out his arm silently and she tied the handkerchief--a large,
clean, coarse one--neatly about it. What with weariness and the shock of
her fright, her fingers were not very steady. He looked down at her
during the operation with a contented expression. It seemed that the
moment was filled for him with satisfaction to a complete forgetfulness
of past or present annoyances.

"This is a big piece of luck for me," he said. "But"--with a sudden
thundery change of countenance--"you're not going over to Hidden
Creek, are you?"

"I'm trying to go there," said Sheila; "I've been trying ever since five
o'clock this morning. But I don't seem to be getting there very fast. I
wanted to make Rusty before dark. And my pony got away from me and went
back. I know he went back because I saw the marks of his feet and he
would have gone back. Wouldn't he? Do you think I could get to Rusty on
foot to-night?"

"No, ma'am. I know you couldn't. You could make it easy on horseback,
though." He stared meditatively above her head and then said in a tone of
resignation: "I believe I better go back myself. I'll take you."

She had finished her bandage. She looked up at him. "Go back? But you
must have just started from there a few hours ago."

"Well, ma'am, I didn't come very direct. I kind of shifted round. But I
can go back straight. And I'd really rather. I think I'd better. It was
all foolishness my coming over. I can put you up back of me on my horse,
if you don't mind, and we'll get to Rusty before it's lit up. I'd rather.
You don't mind riding that way, do you? You see, if I put you up and
walked, it'd take lots more time."

"I don't mind," said Sheila, but she said it rather proudly so that
Hilliard smiled.

"Well, ma'am, we can try it, anyway. If you go back to the road, I'll get
my horse."

He seemed to have hidden his horse in a density of trees a mile from the
road. Sheila waited till she thought she must have dreamed her meeting
with him. He came back, looking a trifle sheepish.

"You see," he said, "I didn't come by the road, ma'am."

The horse was a large, bony animal with a mean eye.

"That isn't the pony you rode when you came to Millings," said Sheila.

He bent to examine his saddle-girth. "No, ma'am," he said gently. "I've
been riding quite a variety of horse-flesh lately. I'll get on first if
you don't mind and give you a hand up. You put your foot on mine. The
horse will stan