the sand at his feet.

"Go on, Colonel," said Jack, who had slipped off to one side, out of the
focus of the glaring light, just in time to prevent Jean Forette from
using the weapon he had quickly taken from a side pocket. "Go on, close
in. I've drawn his stinger."

"Messieurs, what does this mean?" demanded the girl beside Jean. "Who
are you? What do you want? Ah, it is you--and you!" and she turned first
to Colonel Ashley and then to Jack Young. "You who have talked so kindly
to me--who have asked me so much about--about my husband! It is you who
come like thieves and assassins! Speak to them, Jean! Tell them to go!"

The Frenchman was breathing heavily, for Jack had a merciless grip on
him.

"Speak to them, Jean!" implored the girl, while her mother, standing in
the door with her knitting, looked wonderingly on. "Why do they come to
take you like a traitor?"

"It--it's all a mistake!" panted the chauffeur.

"You've got me wrong, messieurs. I--I didn't do it. It was all an
accident. He--I--Oh, my God! You!" and he started back as Morocco Kate
stepped toward him, pulling from her face the veil that had covered it
when the glaring light showed. Jack Young now held the electric torch.

"You!" he murmured hoarsely.

"Yes, I!" she cried. "The woman you kicked out like a sick dog!
I've found you at last, and now I'll make you suffer all I did and
more--you--devil!"

"Softly, Kate, softly!" murmured the colonel. But she did not heed him.

"You--you spawn of hell!" she cried. "It was you who sent me down where
I am--where not a decent woman will look at me and a decent man won't
speak to me. You did it--you left me to rot in my shame so you could
find some one else--some one younger and prettier to fondle and kiss
and--Oh, God!"

She sank in a shuddering heap on the sand at the feet of the man who had
broken her body and spirit, and lay there, sobbing out her anger.

"Let her stay there a little," said the colonel softly. "She'll feel
better after this outburst."

"Jean! Jean! What is it all about?" begged the girl who still maintained
her place beside him. "Oh, speak to me! Tell me! Who is she?" and she
pointed to the huddled figure on the sand.

"I'll tell you who she is," said Colonel Ashley. "She is the legal wife
of Jean Carnot, alias Jean Forette, and--"

A scream from Mazi stopped him.

"Tell me it isn't true, Jean! Tell me it isn't true!" begged the girl.

Jean Carnot did not speak.

"He knows