"If you want me--after you know--what I am--" She shuddered against his breast, and he raised her face between his two hands and kissed her until she drew away from him, crying softly.
[Illustration: Marion] "You must wait--you must wait!" He saw now in her face an agony that appalled him.

He would have gone to her again, but there came loud voices from the forest, and recovering his pistol he sprang to the door.

Half a hundred paces away were Obadiah and the king's sheriffs.

They had stopped and the councilor was expostulating excitedly with the men, evidently trying to keep them from the cabin.

Suddenly one of the three broke past him and ran swiftly toward the open door, and with a shriek of warning to Nathaniel the old councilor drew a pistol and fired point blank in the sheriff's back.