if HE heard nothing, I did. Nellie, I heard Brace tell Dunn that he had
tracked you in your disguise to the woods--do you hear? that when you
pretended to be here with the girls you were with Low--alone; that you
wear a ring that Low got of a trader here; that there was a cabin in the
woods--"
"Stop!" she repeated.
Wynn again paused.
"And what did YOU do?" she asked.
"I heard they were starting down there to surprise you and him together,
and I harnessed up and got ahead of them in my buggy."
"And found me here," she said, looking full into his eyes.
He understood her and returned the look. He recognized the full
importance of the culminating fact conveyed in her words, and was
obliged to content himself with its logical and worldly significance. It
was too late now to take her to task for mere filial disobedience; they
must become allies.
"Yes," he said hurriedly; "but if you value your reputation, if you wish
to silence both these men, answer me fully."
"Go on," she said.
"Did you go to the cabin in the woods yesterday?"
"No."
"Did you ever go there with Low?"
"No; I do not know even where it is."
Wynn felt that she was telling the truth. Nellie knew it; but as she
would have been equally satisfied with an equally efficacious falsehood,
her face remained unchanged.
"And when did he leave you?"
"At nine o'clock, here. He went to the hotel."
"He saved his life, then, for Dunn is on his way to the woods to kill
him."
The jeopardy of her lover did not seem to affect the young girl with
alarm, although her eyes betrayed some interest.
"Then Dunn has gone to the woods?" she said thoughtfully.
"He has," replied Wynn.
"Is that all?" she asked.
"I want to know what you are going to do?"
"I WAS going back to bed."
"This is no time for trifling, girl."
"I should think not," she said, with a yawn; "it's too early, or too
late."
Wynn grasped her wrist more tightly. "Hear me! Put whatever face you
like on this affair, you are compromised--and compromised with a man you
can't marry."
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