eenly, and he was thankful when the second day
brought fewer stopping places and longer rest intervals.

It was in one of the resting intervals that he had been sent aft to
resecure the loosened tackle of the suspended small boat. He had come
upon Miss Farnham and her aunt unexpectedly, and so was off his guard.
But in any event, he argued, he should have obeyed the instinctive
impulse to excuse himself. He knew that the apology was a confession
that he was a masquerader in some sort, and he had felt the steady gaze
of the young woman's eyes while he was at work on the loosened tackle.
Later, when he passed her on his way forward he had seen the swift
change in her face betokening some sudden emotion, and the recollection
of it troubled him.

What if this clear-eyed young person had recognized him? He knew that
the New Orleans papers had come aboard; he had seen the folded copy of
the _Louisianian_ in the invalid's lap. Consequently, Miss Farnham knew
of the robbery, and the incidents were fresh in her mind. What would she
do if she had penetrated his disguise?

The query had its answer when he recalled his written estimate of her
character scribbled a few hours earlier by the light of the engine-room
incandescent. If her face were not merely a fair mask of the
conscientious probity it stood for, she would denounce him without
hesitation.

He tried to make himself doubt it, but the effort recoiled upon him.
Already, in his imaginings, she was beginning to assume the
characteristics of an ideal; and the ideal character with which he had
endowed her would be true to itself at any cost; it would be quite
sexless and just before it would be womanly and merciful. At least he
hoped it would. Ideals are much too precious to be shattered recklessly
by mere personal considerations; and he told himself, in a fine glow of
artistic self-effacement, that he should be sorry to purchase even so
great a boon as his liberty at the price of the broken ideal.

But the burning of sweet incense in the temple of the ideals is not
necessarily incompatible with a just regard for the commonplace
realities. In the aftermath of the fine artistic glow, Griswold found
himself straightway wrestling with the problem of present safety. If
Miss Farnham had recognized him, his chances of escape had suddenly
narrowed down to flight, immediate and speedy. He must leave the _Belle
Julie_ at the next landing and endeavor to make his way north by
wagon