Roxie had been just such another, though under no such tension. She was as good to look upon as a mountain flower. She possessed much of the same natural beauty and many of the same natural imperfections. And she fitted well into her own surroundings, appearing best in the woods, under sun or moon. She was at her best here to-night in this mountain shack where the wind and the rain were more companions than enemies. In the glow of the firelight her hair shone like spun gold, and her skin, tanned and even freckled in places, was as beautiful as the spotted ochre of a tiger lily. One did not ask here for peaches and cream. And her eyes of light blue were as shallow and as deep as the sky at noontime. Her nose and mouth, a trifle pinched, but wonderfully alert--like the nose and mouth of little forest things dependent for their lives on smell and taste--held him where more perfect features had often left him indifferent. Her perfect little body, both strong and light, had its own beauty. Rightly she should have been barefooted. He had a notion she had as shapely a foot as Trilby’s. Back of these physical attributes there was an undoubted personality, and here again he was forced for comparison to the forest creatures--the gentler ones like the doe and squirrel. Naïvely wondering and trustful he saw her, ready to respond to affection, quick to start at danger. It is flattering to any man to have such a personality come to him without fear. As a result of it a man may feel better than he is. It is always dangerous to compare a woman with anything but a woman. It is dangerous to compare them, anyway. Each one must be taken by herself no matter how much like all others she turns out to be in the end. Allston, in reviewing swiftly his few points of contact with Roxie, could find nothing on his part that suggested indiscretion. He might justly take a certain amount of satisfaction in that, but it did not alter facts--if what he was beginning to suspect was a fact. He was by no means sure of that even now. He meant to avoid being sure if that were possible. The best way to accomplish this was to get Roxie out of here at once and back to normal conditions. Allston reached for his boots. They were still wet, but he forced them on and laced them. Then he took his automatic and stepped out into the hall to make sure Bud was safely tied. He found the man silent and motionless, and without speaking to him returned to the sitting-room. His plan was to notify one of the neighbors on his way down the mountain road and have him come up and free the fellow. Roxie had watched from the corners of her eyes every move Allston made. And she realized that every step he took forced her that much nearer a final decision. It was evident that he meant to go back and intended to take her with him. But it was impossible for her to go back--impossible for many reasons. And yet of them all she could not tell him one.