True, his chin was covered with a four days' growth of reddish stubble, his bare head was touselled and unbrushed, he walked with exactly the same shambling slouch as the others. But it was Don. He had passed her, but the line of his cheek was enough, and the muscular back under the cotton shirt. She recognized the old garments she had herself carried to him. Far from being the starving wreck she had pictured, his cheek was full and ruddy, his whole body notwithstanding the shamble he affected, full of spring. For an instant she thought they had taken him. But that was manifestly ridiculous. He was skylarking with the rest. His whole bearing was that of a leader amongst them. Pen leaned against the fence post. A welter of emotions seemed to shatter her; joy, incredulity, terror that her wits might be wandering, anger at his careless air of well-being. Bye and bye she put up the bars mechanically, and started to walk along the road with a dazed air. She could not take in what had happened. Dusk was falling. In a couple of hundred yards a figure stepped out from the shadow of the bordering growth. "Pen!" it whispered. Her first reaction was to a shaking anger. She was a little beside herself. Stamping her foot in the road she cried in a soft, strained voice: "You Don! Cutting up like a school-boy in the road! Is that all you have on your mind!" He fell back a step in surprise. Then he laughed softly like the boy she accused him of being. "But Pen ... aren't you glad?" "Yes, laugh! do!" she said bitterly. "It's nothing to you what I've been through these last three days and nights!" "I told you not to worry," he said sheepishly. "Told me not to worry! What do you think I am?" "There was no way in which I could let you hear from me. I thought you'd understand everything was all right." "You didn't care! You didn't care!" He moved close to her. "Pen dear, don't quarrel with me! We have only a moment. Even this is risky. There are more men coming along the road." She attempted to push him away. "Don't touch me! You're heartless and unfeeling!" Even as she said it she began to sob. She swayed on her feet, and Don flung an arm about her. She clung to him piteously. "Oh my darling! my darling! ... Thank God! I have you! ... Don't pay any attention to what I say. I have suffered so. I was just at the end of my string. If I had not found you soon I ... I ..." "Hush, dearest!" he murmured, sobered and remorseful. "You mustn't say such things. I can't bear it! ... It's true I never thought. I had such confidence in your strength." "I thought you were starving in the woods. I couldn't eat when I thought you had nothing! I couldn't sleep, seeing you lying there." "Hush! Hush!" he soothed her. "Everything is all right now. Pull yourself together, dearest. There are stragglers all along the road."