deserter from the Fort lying in the bushes yonder. Can you give me
the slightest idea how it came there?"

"What right have you trapseing over our property?" she said,
turning upon him sharply, with a slight paling of color.

"None whatever."

"Then what did you come for?"

"To ask that permission, in case you would give me no information."

"Why don't you ask my brother, and not a woman? Were you afraid?"

"He could hardly have done me the honor of placing me in more peril
than you have," returned Calvert, smiling. "Then I have the
pleasure of addressing Miss Culpepper?"

"I'm Jim Culpepper's sister."

"And, I believe, equally able to give or refuse the permission I
ask."

"And what if I refuse?"

"Then I have only to ask pardon for having troubled you, go back,
and return here with the tide. You don't resist THAT with a shot-
gun, do you?" he asked pleasantly.

Maggie Culpepper was already familiar with the accepted theory of