and trembled as If a wind were striking
against her.

"You see, you've been so near to me, and so dear to me all these years,
Jack, that you're like a sister, almost."

"And you to me, Pierre."

"But different--nearer even than a sister."

"So much nearer!"

"It's queer, isn't it? But you can't forget this trouble you've had.
The tears come up in your eyes again. Tell me his name, Jack, and the
dog--"

She said: "Only let me go. Take your hands away, Pierre."

He obeyed her, deeply worried, and she stood for a moment with a hand
pressed over her eyes, swaying. He had never seen her like this; he
was like a pilot striving to steer his ship through an unfathomable
fog. Following what had become an instinct with him, he raised his
left hand and touched the cross beneath his throat. And inspiration
came to him.

CHAPTER XIX

PARTNERS

"Whether you want to or not, Jack, we'll go to this dance to-night."

Jacqueline's hand fell away from her eyes. She seemed suddenly glad
again.

"Do you want to take me, Pierre?"

He explained: "Of course. Besides, we have to keep an eye on Wilbur.
This girl with the yellow hair--"

She had altered swiftly again. There was no understanding her or
following her moods this day. He decided to disregard them, as he had
often done before.

"Black Gandil swears that I'm bringing bad luck to the boys at last.
Patterson has disappeared; Wilbur has lost his head about a girl.
We've got to save Dick."

He knew that she was fond of Wilbur, but she showed no enthusiasm now.

"Let him go his own way. He's big enough to take care of himself."

"But it's common talk, Jack, that the end of Wilbur will come through a
woman. It was that that sent him on the long trail, you know. And
this girl with the yellow hair--"

"Why do you harp on her?"

"Harp on her?"

"Every other word--nothing but yellow hair. I'm sick of it. I know
the kind--faded corn color--dyed, probably. Pierre, you are all blind,
and you most of all."

This being obviously childish, Pierre brushed the consideration of it
from his mind.

"And for clothes, Jack?"

They were both dumb. It had been years since she had worn the clothes
of a woman. She had danced with the men of her father's gang many a
time while some one whistled or played on a mouth-organ, and there was
the time they rode into Beulah Ferry and held up the dance-hall, and
Jim Boone and Mansie lined up the crowd with their ha