That is why you startled me--why I was afraid.

This is my hiding-place, and I thought--" He saw that she had spoken words that she would have recalled.

She hesitated.

Her lips trembled.

In that moment of suspense a little gray ermine dislodged a stone from the rock ridge above them, and at the sound of it as it struck behind her the girl gave a start, and a quick flash of the old fear leaped for an instant into her face.