e they had not been
observed and then set off for the house. She took several steps and then
turned to say:

"Don't talk about this--do you understand? You're not to say a word
about it. I'll see Mr. Putney Congdon and tell him just how it
happened."

"But if the police should ask me--"

"Don't be a fool! The police are not going to know about this. Those
were Mr. Putney Congdon's orders in case anything like this happened.
And you needn't talk to the other hands about it either. I'll fix the
foreman; all you've got to do is to keep your mouth shut."

Her assumption that Mr. Putney Congdon would not be greatly aroused by
the abduction of his daughter was anything but clarifying. Archie
returned the pony to the barn and was sitting in the door brooding upon
the prevailing madness of the human race when Grubbs found him.

"Well, it certainly beats hell!" the man remarked, wiping his brow with
the back of his hand.

"There's a good deal in what you say," Archie mournfully assented. "I
want you to know that it wasn't my fault. Those fellows--there were
about six of 'em--jumped on me and tried to choke me to death and then
pitched me over the fence and it was all over in half a second. I
apologize if that's what you expect."

"I don't expect a damned thing! That fool woman said I wasn't to pester
you about it as you wasn't to blame, which makes me sore, for at the
first jump I was goin' to call the sheriff and turn y' over. But from
what she says we're not to say a word--not a word, mind y'! Y' can't
beat it!"

"I certainly shan't attempt to beat it," replied Archie sadly. "I'd like
to catch a March hare just to tell him that some human beings are a lot
crazier than he is. We haven't done justice to the intellectual powers
of the rabbit."

The foreman blinked but the remark penetrated and he burst into a loud
guffaw. That a child should be picked up in the road and carried away
was startling enough but that nothing was to be done about it was so
egregious that words failed to do justice to it. It was only eleven
o'clock and he told Archie that he might spend an hour at the woodpile,
even guiding him to that unromantic spot and initiating him into the
uses of saw and ax.

V

Three days in the harvest field brought Archie to a new respect for his
daily bread. He found joy in the discovery that he had strength to throw
into the scale against man's necessities. He was taking a holiday from
life itself; and he w