broke that joyous calm, and his voice was husky with suppressed
emotion.

"You will not forget that some day I am coming to you as Phil
Quentin and not in the mask of a bandit."

''I shall expect you, robber, to appear before a certain tribunal
and there explain, if you can, what led you to commit the crime that
has shocked the world," she said, brightly.

"I implore the leniency of the high court," he said, tenderly.

"The court can only put you on probation and exact the promise that
you will never steal another girl."

"And the length of probation?"

"For all your natural life," demurely.

"Then I must appeal to a higher court," he said, soberly.

"What?" she cried. "Do you object to the judgment?"

"Not at all," he said, earnestly. "I will merely appeal to the
higher court for permission to live forever." Both laughed with the
buoyancy that comes from suppressed delight. "It occurs to me,
Dorothy," said he, a few minutes later, "that we are a long time in
reaching the town Father Bivot told me about. We seem to be in the
wilds, and he said there were a number of houses within five miles
of Craneycrow. Have we passed a single habitation?"