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306 wider prison of the bunya scrub and down the trackless gorges to human habitation. Elsie's heart sank with deadly fear. But she had a brave spirit, and she determined that she would never yield. She remembered her pistol, and felt for it at her waist. It was gone. Fool that she had been to show Trant her weapon!

"I have taken it from you," he said quietly. "I don't think I was in much danger of being shot by you; but I didn't want to run the risk."

"If I had failed to shoot you," she said, "I should have shot myself. I understand everything now. This is what all your wild bravado about carrying me off meant; a base cowardly plot to decoy a helpless girl. Mr. Trant, I am ashamed for you; you, whom I trusted, thinking you were a man of honour."

"Don't taunt me," he said with an almost sad quietude. "I deserve everything that you could say; every reproach you could hurl at me. I have acted like a coward and a villain. But my excuse is this: I love you, Elsie; and there was no other way."

"You love me," she repeated, "and you fancy that you can make me care for you by this means? Don't you know that you are making me hate you?"

"No," he said, "you won't hate me, because you will see that though I can do a desperate thing to win a woman's love, I can also restrain myself to act like a gentleman. I shall treat you with the respect that I should pay to a queen—to my own sister. I can't say more."

Elsie flushed deeply, and was silent for a moment. "I thank you for that at least," she said. "Will you prove your words by taking me back to—to my future husband?"

"No," he cried, passionately. "Do you want to madden me? I will not take you back to your future husband. You are with your future husband. I don't intend to let you leave this place till you go with me to be married."

"Mr. Trant, this is madness—this is sheer absurdity. Do you imagine that you can keep me shut up here—do you