Stepping to the cabin door, the convict knocked.
Sibyl's voice answered, "Yes?"
"You may come out now, please, Miss Andrés."
As the girl opened the door, she spoke to him in a low tone. "Thank you, Mr. Marston. I heard."
"I meant you to hear," he returned in a whisper. "Do not be afraid." In a louder tone he continued. "I must go for supplies, Miss Andrés. I will be back to-morrow noon."
He stepped around the corner of the cabin, and was gone.
Sibyl Andrés faced James Rutlidge, without speaking. She was not afraid, now, as she had always been in his presence, until that day when he had so plainly declared himself to her and she met his advances with a gun. The convict's warning to the man who could send him back to prison for practically the remaining years of his life, had served its purpose in giving her courage. She did not believe that, for the present, Rutlidge would dare to do otherwise than heed the warning.
Still she did not speak.
James Rutlidge regarded her with a smile of triumphant satisfaction. "Really," he said, at last, "you do not seem at all glad to see me."