tted Sam sheepishly.

"Hang it up to dry," she said, handing it over.

They stretched in the grass side by side, and, hanging over the edge,
washed their hands in the creek. A silence fell upon them. Each was
waiting for the other to speak. Sam was trying to resist a great
tenderness that threatened to undermine all his fortifications.

Finally he asked again: "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

[Illustration: Bela (Colleen Moore) announces to Gladding (Lloyd
Hughes): "Me want you husband."

_(Photoplay Edition--"The Huntress") (A First National Picture)_]

Bela was not yet ready to answer. She threw up little cascades of
water with her hands. Sam, watching, was suddenly struck by the fact
that they were not at all like ordinary hands.

This was the first pair of hands he had ever distinguished in his
life. They were most beautiful objects, the backs ivory coloured, the
palms and finger-tips a lovely dusky pink. They were useful hands,
too--thin, strong, nervous. Watching them play in the water, he forgot
the argument going on inside him.

"You not mad wit' me now?" murmured Bela softly.

This reminded him that he had every reason to be angry with
her--though he had temporarily forgotten the reasons. He turned his
face away, frowning, blushing again, the picture of anger. It was
partly directed against himself, that he should have so little
self-command.

"No!" he replied stiffly.

"Then why you mak' wrinkles in your face to me?" asked Bela.

"Ah, cut it out!" he said, exasperated. "Never mind my face! What did
you want to say?"

"I can't say it when I think you mad," murmured Bela.

"I'm not," said Sam. "I want to be your friend," he added. "You can't
always regulate your face."

There was another silence. Bela studied his averted face with a
curious wistfulness. He was very difficult to handle.

"You want to see my cache?" she asked abruptly, at last. "Where I
stay?"

Sam's heart leaped up. Old Prudence shook his staff in vain. "Yes, if
you like," he said breathlessly, scowling harder than ever.

She scrambled to her feet. "Stay here," she said. "I come back soon."

She disappeared around the willows without vouchsafing any further
explanation. Sam lay as she left him, scowling at the water, very much
confused as to his internal sensations.

As it happened before, no sooner was the intoxication of her presence
removed than he began to berate himself for his weakness.

"Weak as water!" h