morning. They have been very useful often, and may be so again."

He watched her write the letter and seal the envelope. Then:

"Say," he said, "don't you think you'd be doing right by telling me more
of this? I'll say nothing to a soul, but that little girl you're wanting to
run off with is my wife, and I'll admit I'm kind o' concerned on her account."

Yasmini met his iron-gray eyes, judged him and found him good.

"I never trusted man yet, not even the husband I shall marry, with all
I shall tell you," she answered. "Will you give me silence in return for it?"

"Mum as the grave," he answered. And Dick Blaine kept his word, not
even hinting to Tess on the long drive afterward that there had been
as much as a question asked or confidence exchanged. And Tess
respected the silence, not deceived for a minute by it. He and Yasmini
had been longer in that room together than any one-page letter needed,
and she was sure there was only one subject they discussed.

Dick brought Yasmini's horse to the gate, not to the door, and she
mounted outside in the road for additional precaution. Instantly, then,
without a word of farewell she was off like the wind down-hill.

"It'll be all over town tomorrow that I'm dead or dying, if anybody sees
her!" Dick told his wife. "They'll swear that was you, Tess, riding full
pelt for the doctor!"

Soon after that Tom Tripe came, and made Chamu hold a light for
him while he searched the cellar.