"This is no marriage--I am not your wife!" said Irene, in a low, steady voice. "Leave me! You have forfeited even a brother's claim. No, no; I will not listen to you!" she cried desperately, as Oleah came a step nearer. "You will not leave me, then! You will force me to defend myself!" As she spoke she snatched a pistol from his belt and leveled the weapon at his heart. Oleah folded his hands. "Fire if you wish," he said calmly. "Death at your hands is preferable to life without your love." She lowered the pistol, the flush faded from her face, her eyes grew misty with tears. "If to love you is a crime, deserving death, then, indeed, you shall be my executioner; for never did mortal love as I love you." She hesitated a moment, then laid the revolver on the table, and sinking into a chair burst into tears. "Heaven forgive you!" she sobbed, "for the misery you have caused!" "It is your forgiveness I want, my darling," he said. "I will leave you now since you bid me. To-morrow you shall be returned to your home, and I will never come to you save at your bidding." She did not lift her bowed head. There was a moment's stillness, broken only by her sobs. Then Oleah took the pistol from the table, returned it to his belt, and left the room. It was scarcely daylight when Uncle Dan ordered every man to the saddle. The drowsy soldiers protested, declaring the music of the crowing cock made them the more sleepy, but their leader was inexorable. Every man must be prepared to mount in thirty minutes. Breakfast over, they filed out of the barnyard, while the darkness of the night still hovered in the shadows of the thick forest. Uncle Dan had not deemed it prudent to reveal the interview of the night before, and none of the men knew what direction they were to take or what was to be their destination. When they had reached a clearing in the woods, the men were drawn up in a double circle, and the old scout rode in their midst, and, holding in his hand his broad-brimmed hat (he would not wear the regimental cap), he addressed them: "Now, boys, we're gwine where there will likely be some powder burnt and some lead scattered about loose. The gal, you heerd about last night, is up near the Twin Mountains, and we've got to get back home to-night. But the whole place is alive with guerrillas and bushwhackers and you may bet there'll be some hurting done. I want every man to be prepared and not to be taken by surprise. Look out for a big bushwhack, and be prepared to shoot at half a second's notice. Keep yer guns in yer hand and yer fingers near the locks. That's all, come on!"