CHAPTER V.
MINES AND COUNTER-MINES.
The sight of the party on the veranda of the Shrubberies brought a return of self-consciousness to Peter, and he braced himself, as the trap slowed up, for the agony of formal greetings.

If Miss Pierce had been a less sweet, sympathetic girl, she could hardly have kept from smiling at the way Peter's face and figure stiffened, as the group came in sight.

But Miss Pierce had decided, before she met Peter, that she should like him, and, moreover, that he was a man who needed help.

Let any woman reach these conclusions about a man, and for some reason quite beyond logic or philosophy, he ceases to be ridiculous.

So instead of smiling, she bridged over the awful greetings with feminine engineering skill quite equal to some great strategic movement in war.