've always known that you loved Pierre and not me, Papa."

"You make it impossible to love you!" Elysee answered. "Now listen to
me. Victoire is my home. I built this place. Those I love are buried
here. I command you, leave at once. Get off this land."

Raoul, a head taller than the old man, took a step toward his father.
"If you wanted it to be yours, you shouldn't have given it to Pierre.
You have nothing now, you old fool."

Elysee swung the stick at Raoul's head. The thump resounded over the
field, and Raoul staggered back, his broad-brimmed hat falling to the
ground.

Raoul bared his teeth, drew back his fist and smashed it into his
father's face. The blow knocked Elysee hard against one of the upright
logs of the gateway. He cried out and fell heavily to the ground. He lay
moaning and jerking his head from side to side in agony. The priest
rushed to him, dropping to his knees.

With a scream Nicole threw herself down beside her father.

A red curtain swept over Auguste's eyes, blinding him momentarily. When
he could see again he saw only the face of one man, Raoul, looking down
at Elysee with triumph and contempt.

Knife in hand, Auguste threw himself at Raoul.

Raoul's pistol was out. His dark eyes gleamed with triumph as he pointed
the muzzle at Auguste's chest.

_He was hoping I would attack him_, Auguste realized, knowing he would
never reach Raoul before the pistol went off.

A sudden movement to his side caught his eye. In a glance he saw Eli
Greenglove swinging a rifle butt at his head.

10

Dispossessed

Auguste woke.

He was in a room he had never seen before. A plain black cross hung high
on one white plaster wall. He lay on a bed with a straw-filled mattress,
on top of the quilt. He wasn't wearing his coat. Or his pale eyes'
boots.

Pain throbbed in his head, and with each pulse his vision momentarily
blurred.

He rolled his pounding head on the pillow and saw Nancy Hale sitting
beside him. Her long blond braids glistened in the pale light that came
through the oiled paper window.

The way she was looking down at him startled him. The blue of her eyes
burned like the blue center of a flame. Her lips seemed fuller and
redder than he'd ever seen them, and they were slightly parted. This was
the way she had been looking at him while he lay unconscious, he
realized, and he had seen it only because he had awakened suddenly and
taken her by surprise.

"What happened?" he aske