blind trail."

"You--YOU--here?" she only repeated.

Curson shrugged his shoulders. "Yeth. Of courth you never expected
to thee me again, and leatht of all HERE. I'll admit that; I'll thay
I wouldn't if I'd been in your plathe. I'll go further, and thay you
didn't want to thee me again--anywhere. But it all cometh to the thame
thing; here I am. I read the letter you wrote Doloreth. I read how you
were hiding here, under Dunn'th very nothe, with his whole pothe out,
cavorting round and barkin' up the wrong tree. I made up my mind to
come down here with a few nathty friends of mine and cut you out under
Dunn'th nothe, and run you over into Yuba--that'th all."

"How dared she show you my letter--YOU of all men? How dared she ask
YOUR help?" continued Teresa, fiercely.

"But she didn't athk my help," he responded coolly. "D--d if I don't
think she jutht calculated I'd be glad to know you were being hunted
down and thtarving, that I might put Dunn on your track."

"You lie!" said Teresa, furiously; "she was my friend. A better friend
than those who professed--more," she added, with a contemptuous drawing
away of her skirt as if she feared Curson's contamination.

"All right. Thettle that with her when you go back," continued Curson
philosophically. "We can talk of that on the way. The thing now ith to
get up and get out of thethe woods. Come!"

Teresa's only reply was a gesture of scorn.