“How long,” asked Geraldine dangerously, “does that bet hold good?”

“All winter, if you like.  It’s the prettiest single jewel you can pick out against a new saddle-horse.  I need a gay one; I’m getting out of condition.  And all our horses are as interesting as chevaux de bois when the mechanism is freshly oiled and the organ plays the ’Ride of the Valkyries.’”

“I’ve half a mind to take that wager,” said Geraldine, very pink and bright-eyed.  “I think I will take it if——­”

“Please don’t, dear,” said Kathleen anxiously.  “The keepers say that a wounded boar is perfectly horrid sometimes.”

“Dangerous?” Her eyes glimmered brighter still.

“Certainly, a wounded boar is dangerous.  I heard Miller say——­”

“Bosh!” said Scott.  “They run away from you every time.  Besides, Geraldine isn’t going to have enough sporting blood in her to take that bet and make good.”

Something in the quick flush and tilt of her head reminded Scott of the old days when their differences were settled with eight-ounce gloves.  The same feeling possessed his sister, thrilled her like a sudden, unexpected glimpse of a happiness which apparently had long been ended for ever.

“Oh, Scott,” she exclaimed, still thrilling, “it is like old times to hear you try to bully me.  It’s so long since I’ve had enough spirit to defy you.  But I do now!—­oh, yes, I do!  Why, I believe that if we had the gloves here, I’d make you fight me or take back what you said about my not having any sporting spirit!”

He laughed:  “I was thinking of that, too.  You’re a good sport, Sis.  Don’t bother to take that wager——­”

“I do take it!” she cried; “it’s like old times and I love it.  Now, Scott, I’ll show you a boar before we go to town or I’ll buy you a horse.  No backing out; what’s said can’t be unsaid, remember: 

    “King, king, double king,
    Can’t take back a given thing! 
    Queen, queen, queen of queens,
    What she promises she means!”

That was a very solemn incantation in nursery days; she laughed a little in tender tribute to the past.

Scott was a trifle perturbed.  He glanced uneasily at Kathleen, who told him very plainly that he had contrived to make her anxious and unhappy.  Then she fell back into step with Geraldine, letting Scott wander disconsolately forward: 

“Dear,” she said, passing one arm around the younger girl, “I didn’t quite dare to object too strongly.  You looked so—­so interested, so deliciously defiant—­so like your real self——­”

“I feel like it to-day, Kathleen; let me turn back in my own footsteps—­if I can.  I’ve been trying so very hard to—­to get back to where there was no—­no terror in the world.”

“I know.  But, darling, you won’t run into any danger, will you?”

“Do you call a hard-hit beast a danger?  I’ve wounded a more terrible one than any boar that ever bristled.  I’m trying to kill something more terrifying.  And I shall if I live.”