"I reckoned you were a ghost."
"I mout have been," he said, looking at her fixedly; "but I reckon I'd have come back here all the same."
"It's a little riskier comin' back alive," she said, with a levity that died on her lips, for a singular nervousness, half fear and half expectation, was beginning to take the place of her relief of a moment ago. "Then it was you who was prowlin' round and makin' tracks in the far pasture?"
"Yes; I came straight here when I got away."
She felt his eyes were burning her, but did not dare to raise her own. "Why," she began, hesitated, and ended vaguely. "How did you get here?"
"You helped me!"
"I?"
"Yes. That kiss you gave me put life into me—gave me strength to get away. I swore to myself I'd come back and thank you, alive or dead."
Every word he s
