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"Joan! You knohy I brought you here?"

"Yes, of course; you told oldAnd I' any"

"You knohat I mean to do to you," he went on, thickly

"Do to me?" she echoed, and she never quivered a htBut you won't hurt old to ransom me"

He shook her His face changed, grew darker "You KNOW what I mean"

"I don't" With sorasp He held her the tighter

"How old are you?"

It was only in her height and develope Often she had been taken for a very young girl

"I'm seventeen," she replied This was not the truth It was a lie

that did not falter on lips which had scorned falsehood

"Seventeen!" he ejaculated in amaze "Honestly, now?"

She lifted her chin scornfully and reht you were a woman I took you to be twenty-five--at

least twenty-two Seventeen, with that shape! You're only a girl--a

kid You don't know anything"

Then he released her, alered at her or

himself, and he turned away to the horses Joan walked toward the

little cabin The strain of that encounter left her weak, but once

from under his eyes, certain that she had carried her point, she

quickly regained her poise Thereordeals for her to meet than this one had

been; she realized, however, that never again would she be so near