ed to her, amazed.

"Yes. Don't you remember the letter you wrote to Mr. Larkin, telling
him you had found Tia Juana, but nobody knew who she really was--her
last name, I mean--and it wouldn't matter if they did? A page of that
very letter with the top torn off was put in my hands and as you didn't
mention Tia Juana by name I thought it referred to me. That was the
inference I was supposed to gather from it, and like a credulous little
fool I believed! The bottom of the page ended with: 'She is the
undoubted owner of almost boundless wealth and when I have gone after
her, and won her consent----'"

"Good heavens, of course!" Thode jumped to his feet. "I remember it
all now. That was one of the letters that was stolen from Larkin's
desk by a clerk we found to be in the secret employ of Chase and Wiley!
They'd corrupted him in an effort to keep tabs on the progress we were
making down here. We didn't prosecute him because of the notoriety,
but we made him leave the East when we discovered his operations. It
never occurred to me that any of the stolen letters could be put to
such a use!"

"Or that I could be so ready to believe the worst of you?" she asked
sadly.

"You! My poor little Willa!" He dropped on his knees beside her chair
and gathered her hands again in his. "I thought you were heartless,
intoxicated with admiration and trying your power wilfully on everyone
who came within your reach. Half the men in your set were at your
feet, and it drove me a little mad, I think! And all the time you were
beset by enemies, making your brave fight alone, and even our
friendship turned to something low and base! Oh, my dear, I have
nothing to forgive, but there is much that I must teach you to forget."

"Unworthy things are soon forgotten!" She gazed with shining eyes into
his. "Only the real, true, beautiful things remain, Kearn, and
they--why, they are all before us!"

He looked away, straight ahead of him into the moon-lit darkness.

"When I come back," he said. "Much has happened while you lay ill,
dear. We've gone into the big fight at last, we're going to help set
the world free from barbarism, and I must do my share. I ran up to New
York long enough to get a commission again in my old regiment, and I'm
listed to sail for France with the first army the government sends. I
couldn't stay behind, Willa; I'm sure you wouldn't have me wait when
the call has come."

"No," Willa responded quietly;