ne except those who deserved it,"
she said. "I know! You would never have been so quick to help Mary
Johnson or me, or others who needed help, if your heart was not always
generous and sympathetic. Only against evil were you as steel, and in
moments requiring supreme courage and sacrifice. And that's how you
gained the name before you ever came here."

"Anyway I've changed," said he. "I'm out from under the cloud which I
felt always hung above me. As I say, you brought me good luck that
day--and I see clearly that I shall continue to be superstitious."

"Why, all occasion for that is past now."

"No," said Steele Weir. "No, less than ever. For I'm certain you hold
my good fortune in your hand yet, and will continue to hold it. And
that means----"

He paused, regarding her so intensely that the blood beat up into her
face. There was no mistaking that look and it thrilled her to the
soul.

"Yes?" she managed to say.

"It means my happiness, now and for all time to come," he went on.
"See, I shall have accomplished what I set out to do and what in
justice had to be done, bringing these men to punishment--to
punishment in one form or another. I shall have given my employer, the
company, service worthy of the hire. I shall have rid you and San
Mateo of an unscrupulous parasite in the person of Ed Sorenson, though
my persecution of him now shall stop and I shall leave him enough out
of the property recovered from his father to live in comfort somewhere
with his mother.

"Mr. Pollock states I shall have no trouble in getting legal title and
possession of most of the wealth of these four men,--I and any
relatives of the dead Jim Dent who can be found. For thirty years'
accumulated interest charges owing me will swallow up all the men's
properties. That, however, is only a material victory. I shall have
relieved Johnson of fear of financial constraint; and saved his
daughter from a serious mistake. I shall have started Martinez on the
road to success--and I should not be surprised if he prospered, became
the leading attorney in this county, was elected judge and so on.

"In a way, too, I shall have helped to remove the oppressive weight of
these men, Sorenson, Burkhardt, Judge Gordon and Vorse, with their
sinister influence, from this community and region. They have always
held the natives in more or less open subjection, financial,
political, and moral. There should be a freer air in San Mateo
henceforth. The people