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Rh "what is it all about? I'm in the dark. You look so funny in those dirty things, and barefoot. What does it all mean—Hugh?"

He answered her smile at this first use of his name. Then very seriously he explained it all,—the fight in the dark, what he had done by water that morning, what Peter had done by land; everything save what his promise to Peter forbade him to tell. Her clear brown face was alight and alive with the swift-changing emotions. When he had ended this story of rough deeds, she was deeply moved and silent; but he knew she had acquitted him of his worst responsibility.

"But why," she asked in a puzzled way, "why did that old man think it started about me? What have I"—

She had gone so straight to the point that he was both amused and dismayed.

"You must n't ask me that now, Helen," he answered. "I 've promised not to tell it all"—

"Not to me?" she asked, disappointed.

"Just that," he assented soberly. "Not to you." In the long silence he stooped and