suspicion. One evening he saw Grizel cutting her way through the
Haggerty-Taggerty group, and he offered to come to her aid if she would
say "Help me." But she refused.

When, however, the Haggerty-Taggertys were gone she condescended to say,
"I shall never, never ask you to help me, but--if you like--you can
show me how to hit without biting my tongue."

"I'll learn you Shovel's curly ones," replied Tommy, cordially, and he
adjourned with her to the Den for that purpose. He said he chose the Den
so that Corp Shiach and the others might not interrupt them, but it was
Elspeth he was thinking of.

"You are like Miss Ailie with her cane when she is pandying," he told
Grizel. "You begin well, but you slacken just when you are going to
hit."

"It is because my hand opens," Grizel said.

"And then it ends in a shove," said her mentor, severely. "You should
close your fists like this, with the thumbs inside, and then play dab,
this way, that way, yon way. That's what Shovel calls, 'You want it,
take it, you've got it.'"

Thus did the hunted girl get her first lesson in scientific warfare in
the Den, and neither she nor Tommy saw the pathos of it. Other lessons
followed, and during the rests Grizel told Tommy all that she knew about
herself. He had won her confidence at last by--by swearing dagont that
he was English also.

CHAPTER XV

THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME

"Is it true that your mother's a bonny swearer?"

Tommy wanted to find out all about the Painted Lady, and the best way
was to ask.

"She does not always swear," Grizel said eagerly. "She sometimes says
sweet, sweet things."

"What kind of things?"

"I won't tell you."

"Tell me one."

"Well, then, 'Beloved.'"

"Word We have no Concern with," murmured Tommy. He was shocked, but
still curious. "Does she say 'Beloved' to you?" he inquired.

"No, she says it to him."

"Him! Wha is he?" Tommy thought he was at the beginning of a discovery,
but she answered, uncomfortably,

"I don't know."

"But you've seen him?"

"No, he--he is not there."

"Not there! How can she speak to him if he's no there?"

"She thinks he is there. He--he comes on a horse."

"What is the horse like?"

"There is no horse."

"But you said--"

"She just thinks there is a horse. She hears it."

"Do you ever hear it?"

"No."

The girl was looking imploringly into Tommy's face as if begging it to
say that these things need not terrify her, but what he wanted