“I trust I am too chivalrous to answer that question.”

“You are quite dry.”

“Thank you.  I deserve the rebuke, all right.”

“Oh, I mean you haven’t been in the river.”

“Not since morning.  Am I walking too fast for you?”

“Not at all.  One couldn’t ask to be put off more considerately.”

“By Jove,” he said involuntarily, his admiration getting the hotter of him.

“I beg your pardon,” with the slightly elevated eyebrows.

“Do you know, you’re not at all what I imagined you’d be.”

“Oh?  And I fancy I’m not at all whom you imagined me to be.”

“Heavens!  Am I ejecting an innocent bystander?  You are Lady Bazelhurst?”

“I am Penelope Drake.  But”—­she added quickly—­“I am an enemy.  I am Lord Bazelhurst’s sister.”

“You—­you don’t mean it?”

“Are you disappointed?  I’m sorry.”

“I am staggered and—­a bit skeptical.  There is no resemblance.”

“I am a bit taller,” she admitted carefully.  “It isn’t dreadfully immodest, is it, for one to hold converse with her captor?  I am in your power, you see.”

“On the contrary, it is quite the thing.  The heroine always converses with the villain in books.  She tells him what she thinks of him.”

“But this isn’t a book and I’m not a heroine.  I am the adventuress.  Will you permit me to explain my presence on your land?”

“No excuse is necessary.  You were caught red-handed and you don’t have to say anything to incriminate yourself further.”

“But it is scarcely a hundred feet to our line.  In a very few minutes I shall be hurled relentlessly from your land and may never have another chance to tell why I dared to venture over here.  You see, you have a haunted house on your land and I—­” She hesitated.

“I see.  The old Renwood cottage on the hill.  Been deserted for years.  Renwood brought his wife up here in the mountains long ago and murdered her.  She comes back occasionally, they say; mysterious noises and lights and all that.  Well?”

“Well, I’m very much interested in spooks.  In spite of the feud I rode over here for a peep at the house.  Dear me, it’s a desolate looking place.  I didn’t go inside, of course.  Why don’t you tear it down?”

“And deprive the ghost of house and home?  That would be heartless.  Besides, it serves as an attraction to bring visitors to my otherwise unalluring place.  I’m terribly sorry the fortunes of war prevent me from offering to take you through the house.  But as long as you remain a Bazelhurst I can’t neglect my vow.  Of course, I don’t mean to say that you can’t come and do what you please over here, but you shall be recognized and treated as a trespasser.”

“Oh, that’s just splendid!  Perhaps I’ll come to-morrow.”

“I shall be obliged to escort you from the grounds, you know.”