t----"

"Who told ye about Hawk Kennedy? Who told ye about him?"

"No one----"

"Ye didn't dream it. Ye can't dream a name," he said tensely. "Pete told
ye--he lied to ye."

"He didn't."

But he had caught her by the wrist again and dragged her into the Cabin.
She was thoroughly frightened now--too frightened even to cry out--too
terrified at the sudden revelation of this man who for some days had
been a kind of evil spirit in the background of her happiness. He was
not like what she had thought he was, but he embodied an idea that was
sinister and terrible. And while she wondered what he was going to do
next, he pushed her into the armchair, locked the door and put the key
into his pocket.

"Now we can talk," he muttered grimly. "No chance of bein'
disturbed--Pete ain't due for hours yet. So he's been tellin' _you_ lies
about me. Has he? Sayin' _I_ done it. By G--, I'm beginnin' to see...."

He leered at her horribly, and Beth seemed frozen into her chair. The
courage that had been hers a moment ago when he had shrunk away from her
had fled before the fury of his questions and the violence of his touch.
She was intimidated for the first time in her life and yet she tried to
meet his eyes, which burned wildly, shifting from side to side like
those of a caged beast. In her terror she could not tell what dauntless
instinct had urged her unless it was Ben Cameron's soul in agony that
had cried out through her lips. And now she had not only betrayed
Peter--but herself....

"I'm beginnin' to see. You and Pete--playin' both ends against the
middle, with McGuire comin' down somethin' very handsome for a weddin'
present and leavin' me out in the cold. Very pretty! But it ain't goin'
to work out just that way--not that way at all."

All of this he muttered in a wildly casual kind of a way, at no one in
particular, as his gaze flitted from one object in the room to another,
always passing over Beth almost impersonally. But in a moment she saw
his gaze concentrate upon her with sudden eagerness.

"He told ye I done it, did he? Well, I didn't," he cried in a strident
voice. "I didn't do it. It was McGuire and I'll prove it, all right.
McGuire. Pete can't fix _that_ on me--even if he wanted to. But he told
_you_ or ye wouldn't of spoke like ye did. I guess maybe ye wouldn't of
said so much if Pete had been here. But ye let the cat slip out of the
bag all right. You and Pete--and maybe McGuire's with ye too--all
against