ont of him with the pistol still in her hand. She dropped it on a chair
with a shiver, and broke into a little strained laugh.

"You are quite sure they didn't see you, Larry? You took a terrible risk
just now."

Grant smiled, more with his lips than his eyes. "Yes," he said, "I guess I
did. I taught you to shoot as well as most men, Hetty."

Hetty gasped again and sank limply into the nearest chair. "What brought
you here?" she said. "Still, you can't get away now. Sit down, Larry."

Grant sat down with a bow to Miss Schuyler, and fumbled in the pocket of
his big fur coat. "I came to give you something you sent me by mistake,"
he said. "I would not have come this way if I could have helped it, but I
saw there was a man with a rifle every here and there as I crept up
through the bluff, and it was quite a while before I could swing myself up
by a pillar on to the verandah. You have been anxious about this, Hetty?"

He laid a packet on the table, and Hetty's eyes shone as she took it up.

"Couldn't you have given it to somebody to bring me? It would have been
ever so much safer," she said.

"No," said the man simply, "I don't think I could."

Hetty understood him, and so did Miss Schuyler, while the meaning of the
glance her companion cast at her was equally plain. Miss Torrance's face
was still pallid, but there was pride in her eyes.

"I wonder if you guessed what was in that letter, Mr. Grant?" Flora
Schuyler asked.

Larry smiled. "I think I have a notion."

"Of course!" said Hetty impulsively. "We knew you had, and that was why we
felt certain you would try to bring it back to me."

"If it could have been managed in a different fashion it would have
pleased me better," Grant said, with a little impatient gesture. "I am
sorry I frightened you, Hetty."

The colour crept back into Hetty's cheeks. "I was frightened, but only
just a little at first," she said. "It was when I saw who it was and heard
the boys below, that I grew really anxious."

She did not look at the man as she spoke; but it was evident to Miss
Schuyler that he understood the significance of the avowal.

"Then," he said, "I must try to get away again more quietly."

"You can't," said Hetty. "Not until the man by the store goes away. You
have taken too many chances already. You have driven a long way in the
cold. Take off that big coat, and Flo will make you some coffee."

Grant, turning, drew the curtains aside a moment, and let them fal