y? Because you are a better man
than was Nick Salzar. He who kills is better than the dead."

Then, swiftly his dark features altered:

"My frien' Smith," he said, "I have come here for my property, not to
kill. I have recover my property. Why shall I kill you? To say that I
am a better man? Yes, perhaps. Bu also I should be oblige to say that
also I am a fool. Yaas! A poor damfool."

Without shifting his eyes he made a motion with one pistol to his men.
As they turned and entered the thicket, Quintana's intent gaze became
murderous.

"If I mus' kill you I shall do so. Otherwise I have sufficient trouble
to keep me from ennui. My frien', I am going home to enjoy my property.
If you live or die it signifies nothing to me. No! Why, for the
pleasure of killing you, should I bring your dirty gendarmes on my
heels?"

He backed away to the edge of the thicket, venturing one swift and evil
glance at the girl who stood as though dazed.

"Listen attentively," he said to Darragh. "One of my men remains hidden
very near. He is a dead shot. His aim is at your -- sweetheart's --
body. You understan'?"

"Yes."

"Ver' well. You shall not go away for one hour time. After that----"
he took off his slouch hat with a sweeping bow -- "you may go to hell!"

Behind him the bushes parted, closed.

Jose Quintana had made his adieux.

* * * * *

Episode Nine

The Forest and Mr. Sard

* * * * *

I

When at last Jose Quintana has secured what he had been after for years,
his troubles really began. In his pocket he had two million dollars
worth of gems, including the Flaming Jewel.

But he was in the middle of a wilderness ringed in by hostile men, and
obliged to rely for aid on a handful of the most desperate criminals in
Europe.

Those openly hostile to him had a wide net spread around him -- wide of
mesh too, perhaps; and it was through a mesh he meant to wriggle, but
the net was intact from Canada to New York.

Canadian police and secret agents held it on the north: this he had
learned from Jake Kloon long since.

East, west and south he knew he had the troopers of the New York State
Constabulary to deal with, and in addition every game warden and fire
warden in the State Forests, a swarm of lain clothes men from the
Metropolis, and the rural constabulary of every town along the edges of
the vast reservation.

Just who was responsible for this enormous conspiracy to rob him of what
he consider