"You saw a cariboo?" said Miss Violet calmly. "You were down in the timber and you saw him up on the spur?"
"Come quick!" he cried in an ecstacy of excitement. But she would not move from her seat. Then the Blackguard emerged from the timber, riding steadily up the slope.
"I see," said Miss Violet. "Be quick, Charlie, or you'll lose your cariboo; I'll stay here."
Mad with excitement, Mr. Ramsay seized her forcibly by the wrists, and half dragged, half carried her into the cabin.
"You shan't meet him," he cried. "You shan't!—you shan't!"
Flushed with a sudden rage, Miss Violet wrenched herself loose, struck him violently across the face, then ran out of the cabin and breathless down the hill.
When the Blackguard jumped from his horse at the sight of her, she, scarce knowing what she did, flung herself into his arms.
"My love," he said gently, "what's the matter?—poor little woman, who frightened you?"
She was crying like a frightened child, clinging to him, swaying to and fro, while the big sobs shook her little body.
Then suddenly she stopped short, and looked up in his face very much surprised.