wered. Spencer was a
stranger to him, yet he felt drawn toward him. The strong, clear cut
face won confidence. "If it was the will of Heaven, I would sooner see
her in the grave," he said, with solemn candor.

Spencer rose. He held out his hand. "I guess it's growing late," he
cried, "and our talk has swung round to a serious point. Sleep well,
Mr. Hare. That game is dead off."

As he passed the bar he heard Bower's smooth, well rounded accents
through the half-open door. "Nothing I should like better," he was
saying. "Are you tired? If not, bring your friend to my rooms now.
Although I have been in the train all night, I am fit as a fiddle."

"Let me see. I left him in the smoking room with our _padre_----"

It was Dunston who spoke; but Bower broke in:

"Oh, keep the clergy out of it! They make such a song about these
things if they hear of them."

"I was going to say that if he is not there he will be in his room. He
is two doors from me, No. 61, I think. Shall I fetch him?"

"Do, by all means. By Jove! I didn't expect to get any decent play
here!"

Spencer slipped into a small vestibule where he had left a hat and
overcoat. He remained there till Dunston crossed the hall and entered
the elevator. Then he went out, meaning to stroll and smoke in the
moonlight for an hour. It would be easier to back out of the promised
game in the morning than at that moment. Moreover, in the clear, still
air he could plan a course of action, the need of which was becoming
insistent.

He was blessed, or cursed, with a stubborn will, and he knew it.
Hitherto, it had been exercised on a theory wrapped in hard granite,
and the granite had yielded, justifying the theory. Now he was brought
face to face with a woman's temperament, and his experience of that
elusive and complex mixture of attributes was of the slightest.
Attractive young women in Colorado are plentiful as cranberries; but
never one of them had withdrawn his mind's eye from his work. Why,
then, was he so ready now to devote his energies to the safeguarding
of Helen Wynton? It was absurd to pretend that he was responsible for
her future well-being because of the whim that sent her on a holiday.
She was well able to take care of herself. She had earned her own
living before he met her; she had risen imperiously above the petty
malice displayed by some of the residents in the hotel; there was a
reasonable probability that she might become the wife of a man highly
pl