"What d'you mean? What wouldn't you tell her?"
"What I'd seen here."
"What had you seen?"
"I kep' it as my great secret--but I'll tell you, because you've found out all my secrets, now, haven't you?"
"Well, let's hear it."
"I saw a man hiding, crawling, ready to spring out on me."
"Oh. When was that?"
"Ages and ages ago, when I was almost a baby."
"Heft yourself, Norah. I want to get up, an' stretch ma legs."
The gentle soothing fire had faded--an invincible coldness crept on slow-moving blood from his heart to his brain. The girl was safe now. He would not injure her to-night. He got up, and stood looking down at her.
"Well," he said quietly, "let's hear some more. What sort of a man was it?"
"A wild man--with water dripping off him. He had crept out of the river."
"Do you mean--a sort of ghost or demon?"
"I didn't know."
"Not like an ordinary man--not like any other man you've ever seen?"
"Oh, no. All wild--fierce and dreadful. Not standing upright--more like an animal in the shape of a man."
"But surely you told your Granny, or somebody?"
"No. I've never told a soul except you."
"An' you say you were scared, though?"
"Oh, I was, rarely scared."
"Then you must have told your Granny, or one of 'em. You've forgotten, but I expect you told people at the time."
"I didn't. I didn't dare to at first. I thought he'd come after me, if I did. I was afraid."
Dale grunted again. "An' d'you mean to say you'd the grit in you to come back here all the same, after that?"
"Not for a little while. Then I did. I was all a twitter, so frightened still, but I was fascinated for to do it too--just to see."
"But you never saw him again."
"No, and then I began to think it was all a fancy. D'you think it was a fancy, and not real?"
"My dear girl, no;" and Dale shrugged his shoulders. "You prob'ly saw some poor devil of a tramp who had slept here, and was getting on the move after his night's rest." Then he took a step away from the tree, and spoke curtly. "Come. We must go home."
Norah sprang off the tree, hurried to his side, and, with her hands linked about his arm, looked up at him anxiously.
"Yes, but it's all right, isn't it? You're not angry with me--not turning against me?"
"No, it's all right."
"Then, don't let's go. Let's stay here a little longer"
"No, we must go--or Mrs. Dale will be coming to fetch us;" and he began to walk briskly. "And look here, Norah. I shall inform her I found you here by yourself, and I have lectured you at full length, and you've said you'll be good for the future. So don't answer back if she speaks sharp."