against me but you." She went from one horse to another,
giving each a word and a caress. Then she stole back to the
door and peeked through the crack, to find that her shadow
had disappeared; this ascertained, she went and sat down on
the hay. "If he tortures me, I'll torture him," was her
thought.

Janice waited thus for but a few minutes, when she heard
the rapid trot of a horse, which came to a halt at the stable
door. As that sound ceased, the voice of Charles broke the
silence, saying, "You stall the horse, while I see the
squire;" and, in obedience to this direction, some one led
Daisy into the stable. The gloom of nightfall made the
interior too dark for the girl to recognise the man, and,
not wishing it to be known that she was there, she sat
quiet.

For a good ten minutes the man waited, whistling softly the
while, before Charles returned.

"Waal, what luck?" asked the stranger ere Charles had
come through the doorway.

"Luck!" growled the bondsman. "The devil's own, as
mine always is, curse it!"

"From which I calkerlate that old Meredith wuz obstinate
and wud n't set yer free."

"Not he, plead my best. But that 's the last I ask of him;