For a while they moved on in silence, each wondering what the other
might do next.

Barney had evolved a plan. He would try and ascertain the location
of the institution from which the girl had escaped and then as
gently as possible lead her back to it. It was not safe for as
beautiful a woman as she to be roaming through the forest in any
such manner as this. He wondered what in the world the authorities
at the asylum had been thinking of to permit her to ride out alone
in the first place.

"From where did you ride today?" he blurted out suddenly.

"From Tann."

"That is where we are going now?"

"Yes, your majesty."

Barney drew a breath of relief. The way had become suddenly
difficult and he took the girl's arm to help her down a rather steep
place. At the bottom of the ravine there was a little brook.

"There used to be a fallen log across it here," said the girl. "How
in the world am I ever to get across, your majesty?"

"If you call me that again, I shall begin to believe that I am a
king," he humored her, "and then, being a king, I presume that it
wouldn't be proper for me to carry you across, or would it? Never
really having been a king, I do not know."