“I understand,” he murmured.
From the newly raised structure came renewed cheering.
“If they knew—if Boy knew——” she commenced, then checked herself.
He started, and the perspiration broke out on his forehead.
“That would mean hanging for him,” he laughed uneasily.
“That’s why I didn’t call out like other girls would have done,” she returned quietly.
His hands clenched and the blood mounted to his cheeks.
“Then I count for nothing,” he said bitterly.
“I can’t understand why you will take risks,” she said, ignoring his last utterance. “The folks of the woods have learned a lot from the wild things here. Nothin’ in all this wide woods ever goes where it’s dangerous to go, if they know it. You had better go back to the clearin’, teacher. I don’t want to see you hurt. I don’t seem to want anythin’ hurt. You had better go back to the clearin’.”
“Boy McTavish advised me to do that in those very words,” he sneered. “But listen, I’m neither a fool nor a coward. I have made up my mind to have you, Gloss, and have you I will—remember that.”