the cold features. Upon Hume she bestowed a casual glance that came
and went indifferently.

"Miss Hazleton," said Martin curtly, "this is Mr. Hume."

The eyes of the two men were keen upon her as the name was spoken. As
Martin had said they did not know where this woman fitted in; it was
their business to find out.

Again she bowed, very slightly. If she felt any flicker of interest,
of surprise, that Hume was here, she did not betray it.

"How do you do, Mr. Hume?" was what she said, as indifferently as
though in reality she had no interest in the man or knowledge of him.

Martin left the room and went to the kitchen in search of Mrs. Leland.
Hume came to the window where Helga was standing.

"So you are a friend of Red Shandon's, are you?" he said bluntly.

"Am I?" The lift of her brows asked him very plainly what he meant by
that and what business it was of his.

"Yes," he retorted a little warmly, perhaps for the mere reason that
her very carriage hinted at a will ready to cross swords with his, and
Sledge Hume was not a man to tolerate opposition in a woman. "You told
him that the mortgage had been foreclosed."

"Did I?" coolly.

"And, if you care to know," he went on roughly, "you have thereby piled
up a lot of trouble for your friend Shandon."

There was rare impudence in the laughter with which she answered him.

"I have a way of judging a man when I first see him," she said, her
smile now flashing her amusement at him. "I didn't think that you were
going to be as stupid as the rest."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," and she turned back to the window, "that what happens to
Shandon or any other man in the world is absolutely immaterial so far
as I am concerned. Please don't think that I'm a tender hearted little
thing who is going to cry if you slap another man's face."

"You mean that you are not a friend of Shandon?" cynically.

"Your way of opening a conversation with a woman you have just met is
charmingly unique! If you are trying to get something out of me you
are going the wrong way about it, aren't you? You have already let out
twice as much as I have!"

"Have I?"

"Yes. You have told me that there was a mortgage of which I knew
nothing; that it has been concealed from Shandon; that he has learned
about it; that it upsets your kettle of fish in some way; that you are
going to make things hot for him because of it. All that is a good
deal of information to give a stranger