“You will be all alone to-night.”

“I am not afraid,” calmly.  “And no one will trouble me.  Don’t you know what they say about the spirit of a man—­” she stopped; she had almost said “a man who has been murdered”—­“coming back to his home the first night after he is buried?” It was her last frantic effort.

The man before her trembled, and looked around nervously.

“You better come away to-night with me,” he said, edging away from the door.

“See, the sun is going down!  You must go now,” she said imperiously; and reluctantly the man mounted his restless horse, and rode away down the mountain.

She watched him silhouetted against the blood-red globe of the sun as it sank lower and lower.  She could see every outline of his slouch-hat and muscular shoulders as he turned now and then and saw her standing still alone at her cabin door.  Why he was going he could not tell; but he went, and he frowned as he rode away, with the wicked gleam still in his eye; for he meant to return.

At last he disappeared; and the girl, turning, looked up, and there rode the white ghost of the moon overhead.  She was alone.

CHAPTER II

THE FLIGHT

A great fear settled down upon the girl as she realized that she was alone and, for a few hours at least, free.  It was a marvellous escape.  Even now she could hear the echo of the man’s last words, and see his hateful smile as he waved his good-by and promised to come back for her to-morrow.

She felt sure he would not wait until the night.  It might be he would return even yet.  She cast another reassuring look down the darkening road, and strained her ear; but she could no longer hear hoof-beats.  Nevertheless, it behooved her to hasten.  He had blanched at her suggestion of walking spirits; but, after all, his courage might arise.  She shuddered to think of his returning later, in the night.  She must fly somewhere at once.

Instantly her dormant senses seemed to be on the alert.  Fully fledged plans flashed through her brain.  She went into the cabin, and barred the door.  She made every movement swiftly, as if she had not an instant to spare.  Who could tell?  He might return even before dark.  He had been hard to baffle, and she did not feel at all secure.  It was her one chance of safety to get away speedily, whither it mattered little, only so she was away and hidden.

Her first act inside the cottage was to get the belt from the cupboard and buckle it around her waist.  She examined and loaded the pistols.  Her throat seemed seized with sudden constriction when she discovered that the barrels had been empty and the weapons would have done her no good even if she could have reached them.