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THE MAN IN SADDLE

He pushed a distressed hand across his forehead. "Yes, yes, I see!" but he didn't in the least. He only felt as if a weight were upon him, that could not detain him from going in the direction he wanted, but could make the going hard work. What a heavy necklace a woman could be when a man was straining after something else!

"And there is another thing," she continued, "that may really make a difference in our affairs. I don't know what you will think about it, but you see when he followed me—"

She had come to a full stop, and again fear rose in him. "Well, when he followed you?"

"I didn't see him until we were on the other side of the Sphinx, almost at the cave; and I couldn't make him go back. I didn't dare spend time to try even, for fear it might come and be frightened away for ever. So he came into the cave. And afterward he wouldn't promise not to tell. It wasn't that he wanted the horse," she continued hurriedly, "but because he wanted—" again she stopped, beginning afresh. "I was so excited and so afraid I told him if he would hold his tongue I would do anything that he wanted. That was what he wanted, you see. He asked me to marry him then."

Carron's eyebrows rose, his lips fell a little apart. This was an unexpected joker in the pack. He didn't

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