.

FIRST BLOOD.
So I bound myself to a guilty secrecy for Eva's sake, to save her from these wretches, or if you will, to win her for myself.

Nor did it strike me as very strange, after a moment's reflection, that she should intercede thus earnestly for a band headed by her own mother's widower, prime scoundrel of them all though she knew him to be.

The only surprise was that she had not interceded in his name; that I should have forgotten, and she should have allowed me to forget, the very existence of so indisputable a claim upon her loyalty.

This, however, made it a little difficult to understand the hysterical gratitude with which my unwilling promise was received.