nknown enemy. She
recalled now a certain pathos of his figure as she first saw him leaning
against the tree watching the turbulent little stream, and she was
impatient to find how her sympathy went out to him. It made no difference
who John Armitage was; his enemy was a coward, and the horror of such a
menace to a man's life appalled her. She passed a mounted policeman, who
recognized her and raised his hand in salute, but the idea of reporting
the strange affair in the strip of woodland occurred to her only to be
dismissed. She felt that here was an ugly business that was not within
the grasp of a park patrolman, and, moreover, John Armitage was entitled
to pursue his own course in matters that touched his life so closely. The
thought of him reassured her; he was no simple boy to suffer such attacks
to pass unchallenged; and so, dismissing him, she raised her head and saw
him gallop forth from a by-path and rein his horse beside her.

"Miss Claiborne!"

The suppressed feeling in his tone made the moment tense and she saw that
his lips trembled. It was a situation that must have its quick relief, so
she said instantly, in a mockery of his own tone:

"Mr. Armitage!" She laughed. "I am almost caught in the dark. The
blandishments of spring have beguiled me."

He looked at her with a quick scrutiny. It did not seem possible that
this could be the girl who had called to him in warning scarce five
minutes before; but he knew it had been she,--he would have known her
voice anywhere in the world. They rode silent beside the creek, which was
like a laughing companion seeking to mock them into a cheerier mood. At
an opening through the hills they saw the western horizon aglow in tints
of lemon deepening into gold and purple. Save for the riot of the brook
the world was at peace. She met his eyes for an instant, and their
gravity, and the firm lines in which his lips were set, showed that the
shock of his encounter had not yet passed.

"You must think me a strange person, Miss Claiborne. It seems
inexplicable that a man's life should be so menaced in a place like this.
If you had not called to me--"

"Please don't speak of that! It was so terrible!"

"But I must speak of it! Once before the same attempt was made--that
night on the _King Edward_."

"Yes; I have not forgotten."

"And to-day I have reason to believe that the same man watched his
chance, for I have ridden here every day since I came, and he must have
kept