Occasionally Bill varied the meat diet
with trout caught in the streams beside which they made their various
camps. He offered to teach her the secrets of angling, but she
shrugged her shoulders by way of showing her contempt for Roaring Bill
and all his works.
"Do you realize," she broke out one evening over the fire, "that this
is simply abduction?"
"Not at all," Bill answered promptly. "Abduction means to take away
surreptitiously by force, to carry away wrongfully and by violence any
human being, to kidnap. Now, you can't by any stretch of the
imagination accuse me of force, violence, or kidnaping--not by a long
shot. You merely wandered into my camp, and it wasn't convenient for
me to turn back. Therefore circumstances--not my act, remember--made
it advisable for you to accompany me. Of course I'll admit that,
according to custom and usage, you would expect me to do the polite
thing and restore you to your own stamping ground. But there's no law
making it mandatory for a fellow to pilot home a lady in distress.
Isn't that right?"
"Anyhow," he went on, when she remained silent, "I didn't. And you'll
have to lay the blame on nature for making you a wonderfully attractive
woman.
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