"And you heard all that when you listened just now?" asked Nellie, half
disdainfully.

Impervious to her incredulity Low turned his calm eyes on her face.
"Certainly, I'll bet my life on what I say. Tell me: do you know anybody
in Indian Spring who would likely spy upon you?"

The young girl was conscious of a certain ill-defined uneasiness, but
answered, "No."

"Then it was not YOU he was seeking," said Low thoughtfully. Miss Nellie
had not time to notice the emphasis, for he added, "You must go at once,
and lest you have been followed I will show you another way back to
Indian Spring. It is longer, and you must hasten. Take your shoes and
stockings with you until we are out of the bush."

He raised her again in his arms and strode once more out through the
covert into the dim aisles of the wood. They spoke but little; she could
not help feeling that some other discordant element, affecting him more
strongly than it did her, had come between them, and was half perplexed
and half frightened. At the end of ten minutes he seated her upon a
fallen branch, and telling her he would return by the time she had
resumed her shoes and stockings glided from her like a shadow. She would
have uttered an indignant protest at being left alone, but he was gone
ere she could detain him. For a moment she thought she hated him. But
when she had mechanically shod herself once more, not without nervous
shivers at every falling needle, he was at her side.

"Do you know anyone who wears a frieze coat like that?" he asked,
handing her a few torn shreds of wool affixed to a splinter of bark.