"All right!" he said, "what's the difference--I'd die happy! I almost wish you'd hit me again." "Well, I will!" she threatened, but when he released her she drew back and hung her head. "That isn't fair," she said, "you know I can't protect myself, and----" "Well, all right," he agreed, "we'll call it square then. But--I want to tell you something, Virginia." "Are you going to stand here," she burst out sharply, "and let him blow up your mill?" "Yes, I am," he answered. "I don't care what happens to me if you and I can be friends. I love you, Virginia, you know it as well as I do, and that's all I want in the world. Let's just be friends, the way we used to be when we were playing around town together. I've been trying to see you for months--it's seemed like forty years--and Virginia, you've got to listen to me!" He paused and drew nearer, and she stood waiting passively, as if daring him to touch her again; but he stooped and peered into her face. The night was not dark and in the ghostly moonlight he could see the cold anger in her eyes. "Yes, I know," he said, "you hate me like poison--but Virginia, this is going too far. It's all right to hate me, if that's the way you're built, but you ought to give me a chance. It looks very much as if you'd come up here to-night to do some damage to my mine; but I'll let that pass and say nothing about it if you'll only give me a chance. Let me tell you how I feel and then, some other time----" "Well, go on," she said, "but if your old mine blows up----" "I wish it would!" he burst out passionately. "If it would make any difference, I wish it was blown off the map. I can't bear to fight you, Virginia; it makes my life miserable, and I've tried to be friendly from the first. But is it right to blame a man for something he can't help and not even give him a chance to explain? If you think I've stolen your mine, why, go ahead and say so and let me give it back. I'll do it, so help me God, if you'll only say the word." "What word?" she asked, and he threw out his hands in a helpless appeal to her pity. "Any word," he said, "so long as it's friendly. But I just can't stand it to be without you!" "Oh," she said, and looked back up the trail as if meditating another dash to escape. "Well, what is it?" he asked at last. "Won't you even listen to me? I've got a plan to propose." "Why, certainly," she responded, "go ahead and tell it. And then, when it's done, can I go?"