t back to France. Louis was dead; a new
government held sway; and yet he was not forgotten there. Once, even
the authorities got their hands upon him. But again he slipped away,
and again he came to New Orleans. He spent one night in his own home
with the Countess Louise and their little son; then word of his return
leaked out and once more he was a fugitive.

"In spite of all this he lived to be a man of seventy. In 1850, drawn
with the tide of adventurers surging to California, he took ship to
Panama, crossed the isthmus, and at last came to the Golden Gate. He
lived in California for seven years, added to his wealth, and went back
for the second time to New Orleans. Again he made the long trip to the
West, but this time he fared further and came on into the Dominion of
Canada. He was wealthy, more wealthy than most men suspected then. He
brought servants with him and plunging into the wilds devoted his time
to the lure of exploration and the sport of hunting big game. A third
trip to New Orleans and he confided in his countess that he had found a
home for both of them and their son in their old age; he would make of
himself a power in a new world; his son should some day be a man for
the world to reckon with.

"Coming back to Canada he brought with him the bulk of his own and the
Countess Louise's wealth, converting landed property into coined gold
and jewels. In 1868 he came back to New Orleans, a hale, stalwart old
man, who thought to have a score of years still before him. But the
law had never forgotten him and this time found him. In his own home,
fighting as the young Captain Bellaire in Napoleon's cavalry had
fought, he went down to an assassin's bullet."

There were tears in her eyes, tears of anger as she thought of the old
man dying with his wife weeping over him and his son going sick at the
sight of the spurting blood. Drennen, watching her, marvelled at the
girl. He remembered her words of the other day: "We of the blood of
Paul Bellaire are not shop girls!"

In a moment she went on swiftly, the eyes turned upon Drennen very
bright, a flush of excitement in her cheeks.

"My grandmother died soon after Paul Bellaire. They had just the one
child, my father. He was no coward; no man ever dared say that of him;
but he seemed to have none of the adventuresome blood of his parents.
And yet that blood has come down to me! My father inherited the New
Orleans home and a position of influenc