th the
others, jeering at those who fell short of the mark, and striving his
utmost to be first of them all in accuracy.

He even smiled upon Miss Georgie when she hit the bowlder fairly, and,
when the stench of the burning fish drifted over to them, he gave his
supply of pebbles into her two hands, and ran to the rescue. He caught
Evadna in the act of regarding him sidelong, just as a horse sometimes
will keep an eye on the man with the rope in a corral; so he knew she
was thinking of him, at least, and was wondering what he meant to do
next, and the savage in him laughed and lay down again, knowing himself
the master.

What he did was to throw away the burnt fish, clean the frying-pan, and
start more sizzling over the fire, which he kicked into just the right
condition. He whistled softly to himself while he broke dry sticks
across his knee for the fire, and when Miss Georgie cried out that she
had made three hits in succession, he called back: "Good shot!" and
took up the tune where he had left off. Never, for one instant, was he
unconscious of Evadna's secret watchfulness, and never, for one instant,
did he let her see that she was in his thoughts.

He finished frying the fish, set out the sandwiches and doughnuts, and
pickled peaches and cheese, and pounded upon a tin plate to announce
that dinner was ready. He poured the coffee into the cups held out to
him, and got the flask of cream from a niche between two rocks at the
water's edge. He said "Too bad," when it became generally known that the
glare of the sun upon the water had given Evadna a headache, and he said
it exactly as he would have spoken if Jack, for instance, had upset the
sugar.

He held up the broken-handled butcher knife that was in the camp kit,
and declaimed tragically: "Is this a dagger that I see before me?" and
much more of the kind that was eery. He saw the reluctant dimple which
showed fleetingly in Evadna's cheek, and also the tears which swelled
her eyelids immediately after, but she did not know that he saw them,
though another did.

He was taken wholly by surprise when Miss Georgie, walking past him
afterward on her way to an enticing pool, nipped his arm for attention
and murmured:

"You're doing fine--only don't overdo it. She's had just about all she
can stand right now. Give her a chance to forgive you--and let her think
she came out ahead! Good luck!" Whereupon she finished whatever she
pretended to have been doing to her fi