nd
her steel-bound wrists, and fastened her to a young birch tree.

Then, drawing his pistol from its holster, he went swiftly forward
through the spruces.

When he saw the cleft in the rocky flank of Star Peak, he walked
straight to the black hole which confronted him.

"Come out of there," he said distinctly.

After a few seconds Smith came out.

"Good God!" said Stormont in a low voice. "What are you doing here,
Darragh?"

Darragh came close and rested one hand on Stormont's shoulder:

"Don't crab my game, Stormont. I never dreamed you were in the
Constabulary or I'd have let you know."

"Are _you_ Hal Smith?"

"I sure am. Where's the girl?"

"Handcuffed out yonder."

"Then for God's sake go back and ac as if you hadn't found me. Tell
Mayor Chandler that I'm after bigger game than he is."

"Clinch?"

"Stormont, I'm here to _protect_ Mike Clinch. Tell the Mayor not to
touch him. The men I'm after are going to try to rob him. I don't want
them to because -- well, I'm going to rob him myself."

Stormont stared.

"You must stand by me," said Darragh. "So must the Mayor. He knows me
through and through. Tell him to forget that hold-up. I stopped that
man Sard. I frisked him. Tell the Mayor. I'll keep in touch with
him."

"Of course," said Stormont, "that settles it."

"Thanks, old chap. Now go back to that girl and let her believe that
you never found me."

A slight smile touched their eyes. Both instinctively saluted. Then
they shook hands; Darragh, alias Hal Smith, went back into the
hemlock-shaded hole in the rocks; Trooper Stormont walked slowly down
through the spruces.

When Eve saw him returning empty handed, something flashed in her pallid
face like sunlight across snow.

Stormont passed her, went to the water's edge, soaked a spicy handful of
sphagnum moss in the icy water, came back and wiped the blood from her
face.

The girl seemed astounded; her face surged in vivid colour as he
unlocked the handcuffs and pocketed them and the little steel chain.

Her lip was bleeding again. He washed it with wet moss, took a clean
handkerchief from the breast of his tunic and laid it against her mouth.

"Hold it there," he said.

Mechanically she raised her hand to support the compress. Stormont went
back to the shore, recovered her rifle from the shallow water, and
returned with it.

As she made no motion to take it, he stood it against the tree to which
he had tied her