She walked away from Gibeon for an hour before she realized that every step she took meant two steps, one coming and one returning. She was unconscious of loneliness, nor did she feel any apprehension of the silent woods. The spot where she paused was lovely with cold light and warm shadows and she looked about for a place to sit and rest a moment before her return journey. She stepped from the roadside and seated herself upon a fallen, rotting log, partially screened from the thoroughfare by clump growth of young spruce. Hardly had she taken her seat when a small automobile roared around a bend and jounced and rattled toward Gibeon. It was going at high speed. On the front seat she saw two male figures, but so uncertain was the light and so rapid the passage that she was unable to identify them. She started to her feet to stare after the car, when, to her amazement, it came to a skidding stop, with screaming of brakes, a scant hundred yards beyond her. It maneuvered a moment, and then, departing from the road, groaning through the dry ditch that bordered it, the car forced its way into the woods where there was no road at all. Carmel was intrigued by this eccentric behavior. Automobiles, as she knew them, did not habitually leave excellent roads to roam about in a trackless forest. The cars she knew were creatures of habit, adhering to the beaten paths of hurrying civilization. She could not imagine one adventuring on its own, and most especially she could not conceive of one rambling about in the woods. She had a feeling that it was not right for one to do so--which was natural to her as a human being, for all human beings have a firm belief that anything not sanctioned by immemorial custom must be evil. New paths lead inevitably to damnation. She was startled, but not frightened. Whatever was going on here could not threaten her, for she knew herself to have been unseen; appreciated how easy it would be to remain in concealment. Presently she heard the sound of axes.... She crouched and waited--possibly for fifteen minutes. At the end of that time the car pushed its rump awkwardly out of the woods again, swung on to the road, and, stirring a sudden cloud of dust, sped toward Gibeon.... It was only then she realized the car had been traveling without lights.