"Oh, I don't know," she said carelessly, "perhaps some fine day you'll see me walking in the wood." "Yes--yes," he said eagerly. "I'll always be about watching for you as I would for a hare." "One of my cousin's," she said, with a contemptuous laugh. "They're not his," cried Caleb, quietly, "they're wild beasts, and as much mine as anybody's." "We will not discuss that," she said coldly. "Good-bye, and I hope you will keep your word." "I've sweared it to myself," he said, "and I shall do it. Don't go yet." "Why not?" "Because I could stand and look at you, like, all day, and it will not seem the same when you are gone." "Why, I thought you were a poacher." "Well, I suppose I am. What o' that?" "You talk quite like a courtier?" "Do I?" he said eagerly. "Well, you did it; you made me like you." "I?" "Yes. I don't know how it was, but you've made me feel as if I'd do anything for you." "Ah, well, we shall see," said Marjorie, as she fixed her eyes on his, glorying in her triumph, and feeling that every word spoken was the honest truth. Then, giving him a careless nod, she was turning away. "Don't go like that," said Caleb, huskily. "What do you mean?" "Say one kind word to me first." "Well," said Madge, showing her white teeth in a contemptuous smile, as his eyes were fixed upon hers, just as her cousin's Gordon setter's had been a score of times. "Poor fellow, then," she said mockingly, and she held out her little hand, as she would have stretched it forth to pat one of the dogs. He took it in his brown, sinewy fingers, bent over it, and held it against his cheek. Then, quick as lightning, he had grasped it with a grip like steel, snatched her from where she stood, and almost before she could notice it, he was holding her in a crouching position down behind the bushes, one arm tightly about her waist, and his right hand over her mouth. She was too much taken by surprise for the moment to struggle or attempt to cry out. Then, as her eyes were fixed upon him fiercely, she felt his hot breath upon her cheek, and his lips pressed upon her ear. "Don't move, don't speak," whispered the man, "he mustn't see you along o' me." Madge strained her sense of hearing, but all was perfectly still, and, concluding that it was a trick, she gathered herself together for a strong effort to get free, when there was a sharp crack as of a broken twig. Then the low brushing sound of dead strands of grass against a man's leg; and, directly after Rolph came into view, plainly seen through the brambles, and as he came nearer Marjorie grew faint. If he should see her--like that--clasped in this man's arms!