“From whom, then, may I ask?  It might be convenient to know, if we are to travel in the same company.”

She looked at him keenly.

“Who are you, and where do you belong?”

CHAPTER IV

THE TWO FUGITIVES

“I’m not anybody in particular,” he answered, “and I’m not just sure where I belong.  I live in Pennsylvania, but I didn’t seem to belong there exactly, at least not just now, and so I came out here to see if I belonged anywhere else.  I concluded yesterday that I didn’t.  At least, not until I came in sight of you.  But I suspect I am running away myself.  In fact, that is just what I am doing, running away from a woman!”

He looked at her with his honest hazel eyes, and she liked him.  She felt he was telling her the truth, but it seemed to be a truth he was just finding out for himself as he talked.

“Why do you run away from a woman?  How could a woman hurt you?  Can she shoot?”

He flashed her a look of amusement and pain mingled.

“She uses other weapons,” he said.  “Her words are darts, and her looks are swords.”

“What a queer woman!  Does she ride well?”

“Yes, in an automobile!”

“What is that?” She asked the question shyly as if she feared he might laugh again; and he looked down, and perceived that he was talking far above her.  In fact, he was talking to himself more than to the girl.

There was a bitter pleasure in speaking of his lost lady to this wild creature who almost seemed of another kind, more like an intelligent bird or flower.

“An automobile is a carriage that moves about without horses,” he answered her gravely.  “It moves by machinery.”

“I should not like it,” said the girl decidedly.  “Horses are better than machines.  I saw a machine once.  It was to cut wheat.  It made a noise, and did not go fast.  It frightened me.”

“But automobiles go very fast, faster than any horses And they do not all make a noise.”

The girl looked around apprehensively.

“My horse can go very fast.  You do not know how fast.  If you see her coming, I will change horses with you.  You must ride to the nearest bench and over, and then turn backward on your tracks.  She will never find you that way.  And I am not afraid of a woman.”

The man broke into a hearty laugh, loud and long.  He laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks; and the girl, offended, rode haughtily beside him.  Then all in a moment he grew quite grave.

“Excuse me,” he said; “I am not laughing at you now, though it looks that way.  I am laughing out of the bitterness of my soul at the picture you put before me.  Although I am running away from her, the lady will not come out in her automobile to look for me.  She does not want me!”

“She does not want you!  And yet you ran away from her?”