“Quick, or he’ll murder him—” “Who?” “Black Dan. He’s a devil when angry. Quick! You have pistols; give me one—” She snatched one from Jeffray’s holster, looked to the priming, and without so much as waiting for a word from him, darted away over the heather. Richard, as though compelled, turned his horse, clapped in the spurs, and followed. He could see two men struggling together in the mist under the trees. The girl was running towards them, brandishing her pistol, and shouting as she ran. “Off, Dan, or I’ll shoot ye. David, there’s help coming. Take your hand off his throat, you devil.” The struggling figures swayed and fell of a sudden. Young David, with Dan’s fist at his throat, had tripped the giant, and slipped free in the fall. Quick as a cat he broke away from his brother’s clutches as they rolled on the ground, and scrambling up, took to his heels over the heather. Dan was up and after him like a plunging hound, shouting and cursing as he lumbered in pursuit. Before Bess had reached the trees they had both disappeared down the hill-side into the mist. She turned suddenly and faced Jeffray, and held out the pistol to him by the stock as he rode up. He had recognized her as the girl he had seen under the beech-trees with the old woman tending pigs. “Thanks for your pistol,” she said, frankly, “David’s broken away, and can run three yards to Dan’s two. The lad will be safe enough now.” Jeffray had taken the pistol from her and thrust it back into the holster. He was studying her angry yet handsome face, framed by its glorious sheen of hair. “What were they fighting about?” he asked. Bess laughed, flashed a look at him out of her fierce eyes. “About me,” she said. “You?” “Yes. I must run home to warn Ursula and old Isaac. Good-night.” She swung away suddenly over the heather, leaving Jeffray as though he had known since birth who Dan and David, Isaac and old Ursula were. The man watched her tall figure melt into the mist, wondering the while who this wild elf could be. Regaining the road, he trotted on again towards Rodenham, keeping a sharp watch upon the misty woods. That same evening he called Peter Gladden, the butler, to him in the library, and drew from the old man all he knew concerning the woodlanders who lived in the forest of Pevensel. V