He watched her move a pace or two away. "I'll ask thee once more, when we get back to Wildwater," he said surlily; "and by that time, I fancy, thou'lt have given thought to what the Lean Man's anger is."
He was falling into step beside her, but she would none of him. "Go over the rise yonder," she said, "and it may be thou wilt find something there to give thee food for thought."
"I had liefer walk beside thee, sweet, than follow any All-Fool's chase."
"It is no fool's errand, I tell thee. Thou know'st the boundary-stone this side Ling Crag? I passed it just now, and saw a present waiting for thee on the top of it."
He stopped, glancing first at Janet, then down the bridle-track. "A present?" he cried. "What sort of gift should any one leave for the first passer-by to steal?"
"'Tis a curious gift, and one not likely to be stolen," she said. "What is it? Nay, but a gift grows less if one tells of it beforehand and I'll spoil no pleasure for thee."
A sudden fear, the echo of his late panic, touched Red Ratcliffe. "Is—is it Wayne of Marsh who waits there with the present?" he asked, and bit his lips soon as the tell-tale thought was out.
"When Wayne of Marsh wants thee, he will not wait," she said. "Go, sir, and have no fear at all of him whom thou hast sworn to kill before the corn is ripe."
CHAPTER XIII
APRIL SNOW