"I did, indeed, watch over—you, but——"
"Could you not have done it more softly, sir, and not add to the confusion the clatter of your feet and the thud of your gunstock? I knew it was you."
"Knew you my step, Mistress Elizabeth?" he queried eagerly, flushing with hope.
"Nay, sir," she answered, coolly; "none other had been so foolish; but the Indians?"
"I go to seek them now and would fain say good-by."
"What!" cried the girl, breathlessly, dropping her mood of airy banter, her face gone white in a moment. "What! you leave the stockade?"
"Ay, Mistress Elizabeth, and I am come to beg you—to wish you—to bid me good-speed."
"Where are you going and why?"
"Up the valley to beat up the red devils; to find them if they be not gone."
"Why, sir, you will be in danger!" cried the girl, piteously, stepping from the door-way and coming nearer to him.