"No! no!" the girl interposed, hastily. "You must leave here to-night. There are far too many dangers threatening you here, besides, your staying would bring speedy vengeance on Steve Judson. Both his safety and yours depends on your getting away as quickly and secretly as possible. No one must see you go, no one must suspect you have gone."
"And if I go far away?" questioned Milton, with a deep touch of tenderness creeping into his voice, "if I find a home elsewhere, and can get steady employment, will you come to me when I shall send for you?"
"Yes," was the exultant answer that quickly arose to her lips, but suddenly she remembered her promise to the Squire, and this bitter recollection brought with it a sickening sense of the binding obligation she was under for the sake of another's safety, and the unhappy knowledge stifled the one small word that was trembling for eager utterance on her very lips.
"Will you come, sweetheart?" persisted the young man, in tones of persuasive tenderness, mistaking her silence for maidenly reserve, "or shall I come back for you when the time is at hand to claim you for my own?"
"No! no! Milt, you must not think of coming back, when once you are safely away!" she cried impetuously.
"Then you will come to me?"
"Wait until you see what the future has in store," she answered evasively.
"There's only one thing I care for it to have in store for me, and that is you. You will come to me?" he persisted.
"If nothing prevents, I will come," she stammered. "But one cannot always tell what lies before."
"What is there to prevent?" he demanded, sharply, a ring of jealousy creeping into his tones. "What could there be?"