"Jest go right inside an' set yerself daown," he said cheerfully. "Me an' the dawg'll git on Madam's trail in a brace o' shakes. We'll bring her back, you bet, an' ef you kinder feel as though you'd swallered a live rabbit, wall, let it bolt!" Power uttered no protest. If he was capable of any definite sensation, it was one of relief that the friendly guide meant to leave him alone. He stumbled into the hut, and collapsed on a chair, burying his face in his hands. He heard Peter's lively command to the dog, "After her, Guess! Hark to it, Pup! Keep yer nose to the ground, an' I'll do the rest," as if the man's voice and the eager whimpering of the hound had traveled through a long tunnel before reaching his ears. The sounds of the chase soon died away among the trees. A great silence fell, and seemed to wrap him in a pall that would never unfold again. Fearing lest his brain might yield under the strain, he spread the letter open on the table, and read it many times. At first eyes and mind were equally incapable of mastering its contents; but a subconscious knowledge that he must either understand those vague words or go mad in time enabled their sense to penetrate the gathering mists. And this is what he read: "Derry, I am leaving you. Mr. Willard has followed us. He is here with me now. He has forced me to believe that duty demands my return to Hugh Marten; so I am going. It is best so. Derry, don't grieve for me. If I thought----[these three words were canceled]. Derry, forgive me. I can write no more. My poor heart is breaking. "NANCY." Slowly, through a haze of pain, certain incongruities were revealed in the curt, disconnected sentences. Never before, in all the years he had known her, had Nancy alluded to her father as "Mr. Willard." Even during these later days, when the discovery of a parent's treachery was a prime factor in her seemingly irrevocable decision to dissolve her marriage, she spoke of him invariably in terms of affection. Indeed, Power had practised some measure of duplicity by pretending to agree with her hopeful prophecy of a speedy reconciliation between Willard and himself. He believed he had summed up the man's character only too well. Such a mean nature would assuredly remain stubborn in its hostility; in fact, he was prepared to encounter greater difficulties and annoyance from Willard than from Marten, and meant to persuade Nancy to take a world-tour of some years' duration as soon as the divorce was secured, and they were legally married. Why, then, should it be "Mr. Willard" who had followed them, and not "my father," or "Dad"?