ud. "You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!"

He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.

"Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!"

"Then it is someone else."

"I haven't said so. Of course there's no one."

She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
looked fixedly at her.

"That's why you brought me out here," he announced. "Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!"

"Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild."

"It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
back in time."

He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
arm.

"Don't go!" she pleaded. "You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
face him!"

The face of Donnegan set cruelly.

"The main obstacle," he said. "Come and watch me handle it!"

But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
as he galloped toward The Corner.

31

If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
interest and pity on the faces of the men.

Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
made him set his teeth again.

Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
his invalid chair, enjoying a sun