and low, forced tone. "Very
likely," he said; and added slowly, "but I'll not go alone."

"Maybe not. I don't much care," was the sullen reply. "This place
or that since you come, there ain't much choice. But if you've got
anything on your mind that you'd like to have off before you quit,
you'd best have it up."

"I have only one thing to say to you," was the reply: "you are not
going to throw me over." There was a dimness in his young eyes then
and a rising in his throat. He thought of a great many things and
people in a very brief space, and the world and a score of friendly
faces seemed very sweet and hard to let go. And yet at the same time
another and sterner self steadfastly put all that aside, and triumphed
over the shrinking of the flesh from the dreadful certainty, and of
the spirit from the dread unknown; and to the long fellow's advance
and fierce question, "Who'll hinder me?" he cried aloud, "I will." He
turned and shut his eyes, gathered himself together, and sprang out
into the awful abyss. With his arms by his side and his feet together,
swift and straight as an arrow, he dropped through the moonlight
and through the black shadow, and struck with a quick, keen plunge a
moment afterward a dizzy distance down.

Lying on his face, looking down with staring eyes, and clinging
fiercely to the stones for a great fear that took hold of him and
shook him, the long fellow suddenly heard the shock of an oar, and
saw round to the left a boat slide out of the black shadow under the
cliffs and into the calm stretch of moonlit water. He rose up then and
fled for miles like a hunted hare.

Field was quickly missed, and suspicion immediately set upon long Bill
Trapp. More people knew of the little drama they and one more had
been playing than either had any idea of. A boy from the Ti House had
passed Field up near the old battle-ground, and coming back from the
village soon after had followed Trapp and seen him turn up toward
the old fort. A handkerchief was found on the top of the cliff marked
"D.F.," and Field's hat was found among the rocks along the shore. A
warrant was issued for Trapp's arrest, and he was hunted high and low
by a posse of constables, but not taken. And meanwhile Field was lying
unconscious in an old farm-house by the lake-side a mile or two north.
Old Trapp had been out that night, looking for his son--he and
Bill's mother had been a good deal worried about him the last week
or two--and the ol