y assistance. I have no right--"

"Ah! But eet is not for the moment present. Eet is for the
springtime."

She seemed to hesitate then and Houston took a sudden resolve. It
might as well be now as later.

"Miss Robinette," he began, coming forward, "I realize that all this
needs some explanation. Especially," and he halted, "about myself."

"But is that any of my affair?" Her old pertness was gone. She seemed
white and frightened, as though about to listen to something she would
rather not hear. Houston answered her as best he could:

"That depends upon yourself, Miss Robinette. Naturally, you wouldn't
want to have any business dealings with a man who really was all that
you must believe me to be. It isn't a pleasant thing for me to talk
about--I would like to forget it. But in this case, it has been
brought up against my will. You were present a week ago when Thayer
accused me of murder."

"Yes."

"Eet was a big lie!"

"Wait just a minute, Ba'tiste." Cold sweat had made its appearance on
Barry Houston's forehead. "I--I--am forced to admit that a part of
what he said was true. When I first met Ba'tiste here, I told him
there was a shadow in my life that I did not like to talk about. He
was good enough to say that he didn't want to hear it. I felt that out
here, perhaps I would not be harassed by certain memories that have
been rather hard for me to bear in the last couple of years. I was
wrong. The thing has come up again, in worse form than ever and
without giving me a chance to make a denial. But perhaps you know the
whole story?"

"Your story?" Medaine Robinette looked at him queerly. "No--I never
have heard it."

"Then you've heard--"

"Only accusations."

"Is it fair to believe only one side of a thing?"

"Please, Mr. Houston," and she looked at him with a certain note of
pleading, "you must remember that I--well, I didn't feel that it was
any of my business. I didn't know that circumstances would throw you
at all in my path."

"But they have, Miss Robinette. The land on my side of the creek has
been taken from me by fraud. It is absolutely vital that I use every
resource to try to make my mill what it should be. It still is
possible for me to obtain lumber, but to get it to the mill
necessitates a flume and rights in the lake. I've lost that. We've
been hoping, Ba'tiste and myself, that we would be able to induce you
to lease us your portion of the lake and a flume s