was now hurrying, murmuring and whispering to the rushes tales of the
deep and distant sea, stood two figures.

"Do you believe in me, Minnie?" asked the man brokenly.

There was a pause. The murmuring of the tide grew louder, and it seemed
to sing now, as it rose higher and higher.

"Do you?" he repeated, wistfully.

"Yes," was the whispered reply. "And, Lee, I'll help you to come
through--clean! I believe in you!"

And the tide washed up the shores of the creek so that, even in the
darkness, the white sands seemed to gleam.

CHAPTER. XXIII. MOROCCO KATE, ALLY

"Who are you? Who is trailing me? Is that you, LeGrand?"

The challenge came sharply out of the darkness, and Colonel Ashley,
who had been following Morocco Kate, plodding along through the sand,
stumbling over the hillocks of sedge grass, halted.

"Who's there?" was the insistent demand. "I know some one is following
me. Is it you, LeGrand Blossom? Have you--have you--"

The voice died out in a choking sob. "She's gamer than I thought," mused
the detective. "And, strange as it may seem, I believe she cares." Then
he answered, almost as gently as to a grieving child:

"It is not LeGrand Blossom. But it is a friend of his, and I want to be
a friend to you. Wait a moment."

Then, as he came close to her side and flashed on his face a gleam from
an electric torch he always carried, she started back, and cried:

"Colonel Ashley! Heavens!"

"Exactly!" he chuckled. "You didn't expect to see me here, did you?
Well, it's all right."

"Then you're not after me for--" She gasped and could not go on. "That
last deal was straight. I'm not the one you want."

"Don't get Spotty's habit, and throw up your hands just because you
see me, Kate," went on the colonel soothingly. "I'm not after you
professionally this time. In fact, if things turn out the way I want, I
may shut my eyes to one or two little phases of your--er--let us call
it career. I may ignore one or two little things that, under other
circumstances, might need explaining."

"You mean you want me for a stool pigeon?"

"Something like that, yes."

"And suppose I refuse?"

"That's up to you, Kate. I may be able to get along without you--I don't
say I can, but I may. However it would mean harder work and a delay, and
I don't mind, seeing it's you, saying that I'd like to get back to my
fishing. So if you'll come to reason, and tell me what I want to know,
it will help you and--Blossom.