is insistence upon that peculiar
clause in the bill of sale--he either suspected, or had discovered
through some source, that Rene Beaucaire had never been set free. For
some reason he desired possession of both Beaucaire girls; they meant
more to him than either the money or the property. This card game gave
him one; the other--"

"Eloise, you mean? Did the fellow threaten her?"

"Here is what he said sneeringly, you can judge yourself what he meant,
'She's worth fifty thousand dollars by her mother's will, and I intend
to win her if I can, fair means or foul.'"

Haines did not speak for some moments, his eyes on my face. Then he
paced back and forth across the floor, finally stopping before the fire.

"This is as near hell as anything I ever knew," he said, "and so far as
I can see there is no legal way out of it. We are utterly helpless to
assist."

"We are not," I answered hotly, "if we are men. There may be no legal
way in which we can beat this villain, but there is an illegal one,
unless we are already too late, and I propose to use it, whether you
join me or not."

"You have a plan? What is it?"

"The only one feasible. I thought of its possibility before on the
boat, when a suspicion of this situation first came to me. You are
sure the girls are still at the plantation house? that they know
nothing of this condition?"

"I have reason to believe so. Delia was buying provisions at the
Landing yesterday; I talked with her a moment."

"And you said that Kirby and Carver were only in town for one night,
leaving the next morning on a keel-boat for St. Louis. Probably they
did not visit the plantation at all, unless it was to scout around. My
idea is they were not quite ready to take possession; that they have
gone to St. Louis to file the papers, and will come back with officers
prepared to execute them. This means that we must work fast to get out
of their way."

"What do you propose doing?"

"Let me ask a question first. Is it true that Eloise Beaucaire is
heiress to fifty thousand dollars through her mother's estate?"

"Yes, I invested most of it."

"In what?"

"New Orleans property principally."

"Then it is safe enough whatever happens. The only thing we can do is
this: Tell those girls and the mother the whole truth--tell them at
once, before Kirby can return, and then help them to get out of this
country. It is not necessary for Eloise to go, unless she desires to,
but ther