Gale laughed sardonically. "That's right. I like to see a girl stick to her friends. De Spain ought to take care of her. Good story." "And she has other good stories, too, you ought to hear," continued Nan undismayed. "Most of them about you and your fine friends in town. She told the nurse it's _you_ who ought to be paying her bills till she dies." Gale made a disclaiming face and a deprecating gesture. "No, no, Nan--let de Spain take care of his own. Be a sport yourself, girlie, right now." He stepped nearer her. Nan retreated. "Kiss and make up," he exclaimed with a laugh. But she knew he was angry, and knew what to guard against. Still laughing, he sprang toward her and tried to catch her arm. "Don't touch me!" she cried, jumping away with her hand in her blouse. "You little vixen," he exclaimed with an oath, "what have you got there?" But he halted at her gesture, and Nan, panting, stood her ground. "Keep away!" she cried. "Where did you get that knife?" thundered Gale. "From one who showed me how to use it on a coward!" He affected amusement and tried to pass the incident off as a joke. But his dissimulation was more dangerous, she knew, than his brutality, and he left her the prey to more than one alarm and the renewed resolve never to be taken off her guard. That night he came back. He told her uncle, glancing admiringly at Nan as he recounted the story, how she had stood her ground against him in the morning. Nor did Nan like the way her uncle acted while he listened--and afterward. He talked a good deal about Gale and the way she was treating her cousin. When Nan declared she never would have anything to do with him, her uncle told her with disconcerting bluntness to get all that out of her head, for she was going to marry him. When she protested she never would, Duke told her, with many harsh oaths, that she should never marry de Spain even if he had to kill him or get killed to stop it, and that if she had any sense she would get ready to marry her cousin peaceably, adding, that if she didn't have sense, he would see himself it was provided for her. His threats left Nan aghast. For two days she thought them all over. Then she dressed to go to town. On her way to the barn her uncle intercepted her. "Where you going?" "To Sleepy Cat," returned Nan, regarding him collectedly. "No, you're not," he announced bluntly. Nan looked at him in silence. "I don't want you running to town any more to meet de Spain," added Duke, without any attempt to soften his injunction. "But I've got to go to town once in a while, whether I meet Henry de Spain or not, Uncle Duke." "What do you have to go for?" "Why, for mail, supplies--everything." "Pardaloe can attend to all that." Nan shook her head. "Whether he can or not, I'm not going to be cut off from going to Sleepy Cat, Uncle Duke--nor from seeing Henry de Spain." "Meaning to say you won't obey, eh?" "When I'm going to marry a man it isn't right to forbid me seeing him."