lse can,
and I know that while my bridges may stand examination--_I_ can't."

Hope turned and looked at him with eyes full of such sweet meaning that
he was forced to turn his own away.

"I could trust both, I think," the girl said.

Clay drew a quick, deep breath, and started to his feet, as though he
had thrown off the restraint under which he had held himself.

It was not a girl, but a woman who had spoken then, but, though he
turned eagerly toward her, he stood with his head bowed, and did not
dare to read the verdict in her eyes.

The clatter of horses' hoofs coming toward them at a gallop broke in
rudely upon the tense stillness of the moment, but neither noticed it.
"How far," Clay began, in a strained voice, "how far," he asked, more
steadily, "could you trust me?"

Hope's eyes had closed for an instant, and opened again, and she smiled
upon him with a look of perfect confidence and content. The beat of the
horses' hoofs came now from the end of the driveway, and they could
hear the men at the rear of the house pushing back their chairs and
hurrying toward them. Hope raised her head, and Clay moved toward her
eagerly. The horses were within a hundred yards. Before Hope could
speak, the sentry's voice rang out in a hoarse, sharp challenge, like
an alarm of fire on the silent night. "Halt!" they heard him cry. And
as the horses tore past him, and their riders did not turn to look, he
shouted again, "Halt, damn you!" and fired. The flash showed a splash
of red and yellow in the moonlight, and the report started into life
hundreds of echoes which carried it far out over the waters of the
harbor, and tossed it into sharp angles, and distant corners, and in an
instant a myriad of sounds answered it; the frightened cry of
night-birds, the barking of dogs in the village below, and the
footsteps of men running.

Clay glanced angrily down the avenue, and turned beseechingly to Hope.

"Go," she said. "See what is wrong," and moved away as though she
already felt that he could act more freely when she was not near him.

The two horses fell back on their haunches before the steps, and
MacWilliams and Stuart tumbled out of their saddles, and started,
running back on foot in the direction from which the shot had come,
tugging at their revolvers.

"Come back," Clay shouted to them. "That's all right. He was only
obeying orders. That's one of King's sentries."

"Oh, is that it?" said Stuart, in matter-of-fa