ow-in the mo

that it

pass like a h

er miss n

Ra

Paulina

e Pavlova. Paulette Brown, whom Dudley had brought to La Chance, was Tatiana Paulina Valenka, who had or had not stolen Van Ruyne's emeralds! But t

ur horses as no girl ever had danced-or forgotten the story about her that she had said was "queer"! If Marcia's eyes had fallen on the signature mine were on now, I knew her first act would have been to write to Jimmy Van Ruyne; that even if she had only he

use it was so bold that Marcia had never suspected it. Even I never would have, if Macartney had not brought up Miss Valenka's name. I knew he had done it merely to get Dudley off his cracked idea that Billy Jones might have murdered Thompson, but I was suddenly nervous that Dudley's fool vehemence over a missing girl might have set Macartney on the track of things,-and heaven knows that, except he was a competent mine superintendent, I knew little enough how far it would be safe to trust Macartney. But suddenly one thing I did know flashed over me. Ma

Dudley's eloquence. Oh, I'm so sorry-I'm afraid I've blotted your letter,"

turally: "No, it's all right. And it wasn't a letter, anyhow. It was only something I wanted to make clear." She picked it up, folded it s

ere presence would have warned me, Dudley was too roused to care. "I w

ther unpleasantly. "Only, if that Valenka girl d

us, for all you say he was a good sort. Why, he was the kind to stick at nothing. Miss Valenka had had the sense to turn him down hard; and I believe he stole that necklace of Van Ruyne's from her during the short time she had it-either just to get her into trouble an

f-command back to him; he tried to smooth Dudley down. "I don't honestly believe old Thompson could have been murdered," he said gently, "or that Miss Valenka's

those emeralds out of his skin," Dudley exploded. Paulette gave one glance at him. It

tice, Macartney?" he growled. "You know how I lose my

ruck his superintendent as anything out of the ordinary. He nodded and went out. Paulette strayed to the fireplace, and I saw her handful of papers blaze up before she moved away

e he slept. I thought it was about Marcia, from the tone of his voice, and from Paulette's answer, cursory and indistinct through the closed

he spoke out clearly: "There's nothing else to say. I'll do it now." I heard her m

olen Van Ruyne's old necklace, no matter how things looked. It was that she must care for Dudley, or she would never have let him bring her out here. And another thing hit me harder still, and that was Hutton,-the cousin Macartney said was engaged to her, and Dudley said cadged on her, till he ended by branding her as a thief and ge

protect my gold; and I wondered with a horror that made me too sick to swear, if it were Hutton himself, and not Dunn nor Collins, who had cached that wolf dope in my wagon! If it were, he had not cared about wolv

ched in the bush somewhere, waiting his chance to grab our gold and incriminate Paulette, as common sense told me she expected. I was sure as death he had a gang somewhere, for no outsider would try to run that business alone; Collins and Dunn might have been on their way to join it th

done it and reached the corduroy road before us; and Paulette must really hate Hutton savagely, for she must have known whom she wa

ut, if you know the inside of the business, how did that cousin Macartney was talking of e

hang round and drive a girl half wild. He was a plain skunk. I don't know how he managed the thing, but I know he was there in the Houstons' house, somehow, if Paulette doesn't think so"-he forgot all about the Valenka-"and that he took t

, and there was no one else who could hear. "You're never likely to see him here, anyhow," I added, since I meant to see him myself first, somehow; after which I trusted he was

aquet it ought to be simple enough to find the boy who took his horse back to Billy Jones, and-there's apparently no such boy in Caraquet! What set me on Billy Jones first was that he stammered and stuttered about not kn

. I had never really discovered how he had been hurt by a falling tree, and without reason some animal instinct told me the two things belonged together and that they were queer. But before I could say so, Dudley burst into unexpected speech

cia outside; it was only Macartney. Yet I stopped short and stared at him, for it was a Macartney I had never seen. He was close to the living-room door, just as if he had been listen

matter with you, Macar

dn't murder a cat! And there's another thing, too! I heard all Wilbraham said about that Valenka girl's cousin, and I wish you'd tell him to go slow on it. I was in too much of a rage, or I'd have gone in and told him myself. Dick Hutton was a friend of mine; no matter how much he was in love with a girl who'd got sick of him for Van Ruyne, he wasn't the kind to sneak round the Houstons' house as a servant. I won't let any one say that with impunity. I

y inquired as I went back t

t." I felt no call to enter on Macartney's

no use my trying to imagine that Tatiana Paulina Valenka was not going to marry Dudley, whatever I had hoped about Paulette Brown. As far as any chance of her loving me was concerned, I had lost my dream girl forever. She was none of my business any more, ex

hat looked as if we'd all deserted it hours ago, and went Indian-si

d of it. And wrapped in a shawl, with her back to me, stood my dream gir

elf to talk. But I was just three feet behind her as she slid around the corner of the shack, toward the bush that lay dark aga

ow I had made a stride to her till I felt

d I, who had really nothing to do with one another, if I would have laid my soul under her