h her
red hair and pretty eyes, was the agent of the Skandinavia, paid to
wreck the great work he and Leslie had set up. She was paid to achieve
the destruction at--any cost.

It was amazing. It was overwhelming. It was even--terrible.

He pursued his way with hurried steps. And as he went his mind leapt
back to the time when he had made his great appeal for the poor,
deserted child shut up in the coldly correct halls of Marypoint College.
What an irony it all seemed now. Then he remembered her first coming to
Sachigo, and the mystery of the letter from Father Adam heralding her
arrival. He had understood the moment Nancy had announced her name to
him on the quay. He had understood the thought, the hope which had
inspired the letter.

In his rugged heart he had welcomed the letter which Father Adam had
written. He had welcomed the girl's first coming to the place he felt
should be her inheritance. He had seen in those things the promise of
the belated justice for which years ago he had appealed. Father Adam had
asked Bull to receive her well. Why? There was only one answer to that
in the lumberman's mind. Father Adam had seen her. He understood her
beauty, and had fallen for it. What more reasonable then that Bull
should do the same.

But that was all past and done with now. All the things he had dreamed
of, and so ardently desired, had been lost through a mischievous Fate.
The neglected stepdaughter of Leslie Standing was body and soul part of
their enemy's armament of offence. It was all too crazy. It was all too
devilish for calm contemplation.

The sight of the girl's pathetic eyes, so weary, so troubled, had been
sufficient. Bat could not have remained in that room another minute. No.
Down at the mill were the things he understood. They were the things he
was bred to, and could deal with. These others were something that left
him hopeless and helpless. So he went, determined to lay the ghost of
the thing behind him in the tremendous effort the necessities of the
mill demanded he should put forth.

* * * * *

Bull's emotions were deeply stirred. He gazed into the tired eyes of the
girl, so beautiful for all their complete dejection. He marked the cold
pallor of her cheeks, and realised the dishevelled condition of her
glorious masses of hair. An intense pity left him gravely troubled.

As Nancy stood gazing up at the man, complete hopelessness oppressed
her. She remembered we