"Yes, Mr. Devereaux. I was hurrying home from an errand to Cliffdene when this man jumped out of his boat, and threatened to kiss me."
"Apologize to the lady on your knees, cur!" cried Jesse Devereaux, helping him with a hand on his coat collar.
The wretch obeyed in craven fear.
"Now tell me where you came from in the boat."
"From the nearest town," sullenly.
"Then get into that boat and go back to it as fast as you can row, and if you are ever caught in Stonecliff again, I promise to thrash you within an inch of your life."
The defeated bully obeyed in craven silence, but the gleam of his somber eyes boded no good to the man who had so coolly mastered him.
Devereaux and Liane stood side by side, watching the little boat shoot away over the dancing billows, leaving ripples of phosphorescent light in the wake of the oars. Then he turned and took her hand.
"You had quite an adventure," he said. "Why, you are trembling like a leaf, poor child!"
He felt like drawing her to his breast, and soothing her fears; but that would not be conventional. So he could only regard her with the tenderest pity and admiration, while clasping the trembling little hand as tight as he dared.