"As I have confessed, I suggested it: it was just after I had seen
your men and the sheriff's ready to fly at one another's throats. I
was miserably afraid, and I asked Uncle Somerville if he could not
make terms with you in some other way. I didn't mean--"

He made haste to help her.

"Please don't try to defend your motive to me; it is wholly
unnecessary. It is more than enough for me to know that you were
anxious about my safety."

But she would not let him have the crumb of comfort undisputed.

"There were other lives involved besides yours. I didn't say I was
specially afraid for you, did I?"

"No, but you meant it. And I thought afterward that I should have
given you a hint in some way, though the way didn't offer at the time.
There was no danger of bloodshed. I knew--we all knew--that Deckert
wouldn't go to extremities with the small force he had."

"Then it was only a--a--"

"A bluff," he said, supplying the word. "If I had believed there was
the slightest possibility of a fight, I should have made my men take
to the woods rather than let you witness it."

"You shouldn't have let me waste my sympathy," she protested
reproachfully.