She could not understand. And presently the song grew faint among the
timber and died away entirely.
Her uncle took her gently by the arm and steered her toward the
caboose. "Well, what do you think of your company now?" he demanded
gayly.
"I think," she answered soberly, "that you have gained an enemy worth
while and that it behooves you not to underestimate him."
CHAPTER XVII
Through the green timber Bryce Cardigan strode, and there was a lilt
in his heart now. Already he had forgotten the desperate situation
from which he had just escaped; he thought only of Shirley Sumner's
face, tear-stained with terror; and because he knew that at least
some of those tears had been inspired by the gravest apprehensions as
to his physical well-being, because in his ears there still resounded
her frantic warning, he realized that however stern her decree of
banishment had been, she was nevertheless not indifferent to him. And
it was this knowledge that had thrilled him into song and which when
his song was done had brought to his firm mouth a mobility that
presaged his old whimsical smile--to his brown eyes a beaming light
of confidence and pride.
The climax had been reached--and passed; and the result had been far
from the disaster he had painted in his mind's eye ever since the
knowledge had come to him that he was doomed to battle to a knockout
with Colonel Pennington, and that one of the earliest fruits of
hostilities would doubtless be the loss of Shirley Sumner's prized
friendship.
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