Suddenly James had a queer experience.  One sense became transposed into another, as one changes the key in music.  He heard absolutely nothing, but it was as if he saw a noise.  He saw a man standing on the right between him and the girl.  The man had not made the slightest sound, he was sure.  James had good ears, but sound and not sight was what betrayed him, or rather sound transposed into sight.  He stood as motionless as a tree himself.  James knew that he had been looking at the girl.  Now she was looking at him.  James felt a long shudder creep over him.  He had never been afraid of anything except fear.  Now he was afraid of fear, and there was something about the man which awakened this terror, yet it was inexplicable.  He was a middle-aged man, and distinctly handsome.  He was something above the medium height, and very well dressed.  He wore a fur-lined coat which looked opulent.  He had gray hair and a black mustache.  There was nothing menacing in his face.  He was, indeed, smiling a curious retrospective smile, as if at his own thoughts.  Although his eyes regarded James attentively, this smiling mouth seemed entirely oblivious of him.  The man gave an odd impression, as of two personalities:  the one observant, with an animal-like observance for his own weal or woe, the other observant with intelligence.  It was possibly this impression of a dual personality which gave James his quick sense of horror.  He walked on, feeling his very muscles shrink.  Just before James reached the man he emerged easily, with not the slightest appearance of stealth, from the wood, and walked on before him with a rapid, swinging stride.  There were then three persons upon the road:  the girl in brown, the strange man in the fur-lined coat, and James Elliot.  James quickened his pace, but the other man kept ahead of him, and reached the girl.  He stopped and James broke into a run.  He saw the man place a hand upon the girl’s shoulder, and make a motion as if to turn her face toward his.  James came up with a shout, and the man disappeared abruptly, with a quick backward glance at James, into the wood.

The girl looked at James, and her little face under her brown plumed hat was very white.  “Oh,” she gasped, as if she had always known him, “I am so glad you are here!  He frightened me terribly.”

She tried to smile at James, although her poor little mouth was quivering.  “Who was he?” she asked.

[Illustration:  “You don’t think he will come back?” Page 21.]

“I don’t know.”

A sudden suspicion flashed into her eyes.  “He wasn’t with you?”

“No.  I saw him on the edge of the woods back there, and I didn’t like his looks.  When he started to follow you I hurried to catch up.”

“Oh, thank you,” said the girl fervently.  “Do forgive me for asking if you were with him.  I knew you were not the minute I saw you.  I did not turn my face, although he tried to make me.  I don’t know why, but I do know he was something terrible and wicked.”  The girl said this last with a shudder.  She caught hold of James’s arm innocently, as a frightened child might have done.  “You don’t think he will come back?”