gly, in an
absent, perfunctory manner. Lettice Hollidew, at the opposite end of the
table, displayed the generous but dainty appetite of girlhood. The coat to
her suit, with a piece of lace pinned about the collar, and a new, flat
leather bag with a silver initial, hung from the back of her chair.

They again listlessly took their places in the stage. Buckley Simmons
emulated the stranger in lighting a mahogany-colored cigar with an
ornamental band which Buckley moved toward his lips before the swiftly
approaching conflagration. Gordon drove with his mind pleasantly vacant,
lulled by the monotonous miles of road flickering through his vision, the
shifting forms of distant peaks, virid vistas, nearby trees and bushes,
all saturated in the slumberous, yellow, summer heat.

Gradually the aspect of their surroundings changed, the forms of the
mountains grew bolder, streams raced whitely over broken, rocky beds; the
ranks of the forest closed up, only a rare trail broke the road. The
orderly farmhouses, the tilled fields, disappeared; a rare cabin, roughly
constructed of unbarked logs, dominated a parched patch, cut from the
heart-breaking tangle of the wild, a thread of smoke creeping from a
precarious chimney above the far, unbroken canopy of living green.
Children with matted hair, beady-eyed like animals, in bag-like slips,
filled the doorways; adults, gaunt-jawed and apathetic, straightened
momentarily up from their toil with the stubborn earth.

At the sharpest ascent yet encountered Gordon again left the stage.
Buckley Simmons recalled a short cut through the wood, and noisily
entreated Lettice Hollidew to accompany him.

"It's awfully pretty," he urged, "and easy; no rocks to cut your shoes.
I'll go ahead with a stick to look out for snakes."

She shuddered charmingly at the final item, and vowed she would not go a
step. But he persisted, and in the end persuaded her. The stranger
continued unmoved in his place; Merlier shifted not a pound's weight, but
sat with a cold, indifferent face turned upon the straining horses.

Gordon walked ahead, whistling under his breath, and, with a single
skilful twist, he rolled a cigarette from a muslin bag of tobacco labeled
Green Goose.

The short cut into which Buckley and Lettice Hollidew disappeared refound
the road, Gordon knew, over a mile above; and he was surprised, shortly,
to see the girl's white waist moving rapidly into the open. She was alone,
breathing in excit