, dissipated, bashful blockhead--nonsense! [Exit,
brandishing pail.

SCENE 3.--The Same.

(A pause. SANDY'S voice, without.) This way, miss: the trail is easier.

(MISS MARY'S voice, without.) Never mind me; look after the bucket.

Enter SANDY, carrying bucket with water, followed by MISS MARY. SANDY
sets bucket down.

Miss Mary. There, you've spilt half of it. If it had been whiskey, you'd
have been more careful.

Sandy (submissively). Yes, miss.

Miss Mary (aside). "Yes, miss!" The man will drive me crazy with his
saccharine imbecility. (Aloud.) I believe you would assent to anything,
even if I said you were--an impostor!

Sandy (amazedly). An impostor, Miss Mary?

Miss Mary. Well, I don't know what other term you use in Red Gulch to
express a man who conceals his real name under another.

Sandy (embarrassed, but facing MISS MARY). Has anybody been tellin' ye I
was an impostor, miss? Has thet derned old fool that I saw ye with--

Miss Mary. "That old fool," as you call him, was too honorable a
gentleman to disclose your secret, and too loyal a friend to traduce
you by an epithet. Fear nothing, Mr. "Sandy": if you have limited your
confidence to ONE friend, it has not been misplaced. But, dear me, don't
think I wish to penetrate your secret. No. The little I learned was
accidental. Besides, his business was with me: perhaps, as his friend,
you already know it.

Sandy (meekly). Perhaps, miss, he was too honorable a gentleman to
disclose YOUR secret. His business was with me.

Miss Mary (aside). He has taken a leaf out of my book! He is not so
stupid, after all. (Aloud.) I have no secret. Col. Starbottle came here
to make me an offer.

Sandy (recoiling). An offer!

Miss Mary. Of a home and independence. (Aside.) Poor fellow! how pale he
looks! (Aloud.) Well, you see, I am more trustful than you. I will tell
you MY secret; and you shall aid me with your counsel. (They sit on
ledge of rocks.) Listen! My mother had a cousin once,--a cousin cruel,
cowardly, selfish, and dissolute. She loved him, as women are apt to
love such men,--loved him so that she beguiled her own husband to trust
his fortunes in the hands of this wretched profligate. The husband
was ruined, disgraced. The wife sought her cousin for help for her
necessities. He met her with insult, and proposed that she should fly
with him.

Sandy. One moment, miss: it wasn't his pardner--his pardner's wife--eh?

Miss Mary (impatiently). It was t