"Some one shot in the forest last night while Johnny was off chasing
your assailant. Likely the second man he saw cranking the car. It
struck the tree. Johnny and I made a compact not to speak of it and I
forgot. My aunt is fussy."

"Where were you?" demanded Philip abruptly.

"By the tree. It--it grazed my hair--"

Philip's face grew suddenly as changeless as the white moonlight in the
forest.

"Accidental knives and bullets in Arcadia!" said he at length. "It
jars a bit."

"I do hope," said Diane with definite disapproval, "that you're not
going to fuss. I didn't. I was frightened of course, for at first I
thought it had been aimed straight at me--and I was quite alone--but
startling things do happen now and then, and if you can't explain them,
you might as well forget them. I hope I may count on your silence. If
my aunt gets wind of it, she'll conjure up a trail of accidental shots
to follow me from here to Florida and every time it storms, she'll like
as not hear ghost-bullets. She's like that."

"Florida!" ejaculated Philip--and stared.

"To be sure!" said Diane. "Why not? Must I alter my plans for
somebody's stray bullet?"

Philip frowned uneasily. The instinctive protest germinating