"You’re not going away, Gilbert; you can’t, and there is no need. Besides, where would you go?" she persisted, resting her face against mine. "I don’t know, but I am going, and to-night. I’m tired of being chased about the country by that little devil. I would like to kill him!" I answered, feeling very sore. "Oh, don’t say that, Gilbert, please don’t!" she answered, putting her arms about me as if she would in this way shield and restrain me. "I didn’t mean it, Constance, you know; but Moth’ll not stop at anything nor wait for the courts, and once he gets me, there will be no help for it. It would be just like him to put me in jail—but where I am to go I don’t know." "Don’t go at all, Gilbert, please don’t, there’s no need," she pleaded. To this I made no response, and for a time we sat without speaking, clasping each other’s hands. At last, seeing I was determined, she looked up timidly and as if she had found a way out of our trouble. "If you will leave, Gilbert, why not go to the Blakes? They are such gentle people, too, and Moth would never be able to find you there." "It’s the very thing," I cried, jumping up, "and not like going away, either, for I shall be near you all the time; you are always my good angel, Constance," I added, kissing the sweet creature. "Then you will go there?" "Yes; but no one must be told, so that if Uncle Job is asked, he can say he doesn’t know." "No one but Blott, for he must go with you. He will not betray us, I’m sure," she answered. On Blott’s being sent for, she went to him, and taking his great hand said, in a hesitating, timid way, "We want you to do something for us, and we know you will never speak of it to any one." "A tenpenny nail in an oak plank, miss, can’t hold it better’n I can a secret if it concerns you or Gilbert there," he answered, with more resolution than was usual with him. "It isn’t much, but we think it a good deal," she answered, still hesitating. "If you think that, it’s mount’ins to me," he answered. "Thank you; and it is good of you to say so. Gilbert has to go away to-night, Blott," she hurried on, "and without any one knowing it, or where he is, and I want you to go with him." "All right, miss, I’ll do anything you say; but what’s the matter, if there ain’t no harm in askin’?" "Moth’s here," I answered, "and he is determined to make trouble, and so I am going away." "Is that woodtick after you agin? Well, if that’s all you’re goin’ for, I can fix him quicker’n a butterfly can flap his wings," Blott responded, straightening up. "See that fist? If it was to hit him, he wouldn’t light this side of Rock River’s foamin’ waters. I hain’t had a scrap since the cold winter of ’32, an’ I’m just dyin’ for one." "No, Blott; it wouldn’t help me, and only get you into trouble," I answered. "Well, just as you say; but if you’d let me give the little burr a thrashin’—nothin’ to hurt, you know—he’d never bother you agin."