I was rushing
blindly into the brush toward a place where I saw smoke, cursing like
a fiend. Then came the second shot and the stinging in my arm. It
brought me to my senses. I stopped and a moment later I saw a man
running down along the bank of the stream. I--oh, well, there isn't
any more to tell. I don't know who fired the shots. I couldn't see his
face."

"It was Tompkins," she cried. "I know it was. He had his orders--" but
she checked herself in confusion.

"His orders? Do you mean to say--Miss Drake, did your brother instruct
him to kill me?" She quailed beneath his look.

"--I can't say anything more about it, Mr. Shaw," she murmured, so
piteously that he was touched. For a seemingly interminable length of
time his hard eyes looked into hers and then they softened.

"I understand," he said simply. "You cannot talk about it. I'll not
ask any questions."

"My brother is weak in her hands," she managed to say in extenuation.

"After all, it isn't a pleasant subject. If you don't mind we'll let
it drop--that is, between you and me, Miss Drake! I hope the war won't
break off our--"

"Don't suggest it, please! I'd rather you wouldn't. We are friends,
after all. I thought it was playing at war--and I can't tell you how
shocked I am."

"Poor old Bonaparte!" was all he said in reply. She stooped and laid
her hand on the fast-chilling coat of the dog. There were tears in
her eyes as she arose and turned away, moving toward her horse. Shaw
deliberately lifted the dead animal into his arms and strode off
toward his own land. She followed after a moment of indecision,
leading the horse. Across the line he went and up the side of the
knoll to his right. At the foot of a great tree he tenderly deposited
his burden. Then he turned to find her almost beside him.

"You won't mind my coming over here, will you?" she asked softly.
He reached out and clasped her hand, thoughtlessly, with his
blood-covered fingers. It was not until long afterward that she
discovered his blood upon the hand from which she had drawn her riding
glove.

"_You_ are always welcome" he said. "I am going to bury him here this
afternoon. No, please don't come. I'll bring the men down to help me.
I suppose they think I'm a coward and a bounder over at your place. Do
you remember the challenge you gave me yesterday? You dared me to come
over the line as far into Bazelhurst land as you had come into mine.
Well, I dared last night."

"You dared?