ng has happened to her; there's hell to pay. I found
her clothes at the house torn to ribbons and all muddy and wet."

Poleon cried out at this.

"We've got to find her and Gale, and we haven't a minute to lose. I'm
afraid we're too late as it is. I wish it was daylight. Damn the
darkness, anyhow! It makes it ten times harder."

His incoherence alarmed his listener more than his words.

"Were have you look?"

"I've been to the house, but Alluna is crazy, and says Gale has gone to
kill Stark, as near as I can make out. Both of them were at my quarters
to-night, and I'm afraid the squaw is right."

"But w'ere is Necia?"

"We don't know; maybe Stark has got her."

The Frenchman cursed horribly. "Have you try hees cabane?"

"No."

Without answer the Frenchman darted away, and the Lieutenant sped after
him through the deserted rows of log-houses.

"Ha! Dere's light," snarled Doret, over his shoulder, as they neared
their goal.

"Be careful," panted Burrell. "Wait! Don't knock." He forced Poleon to
pause. "Let's find out who's inside. Remember, we're working blind."

He gripped his companion's arm with fingers of steel, and together they
crept up to the door, but even before they had gained it they heard a
voice within. It was Stark's. The walls of the house were of
moss-chinked logs that deadened every sound, but the door itself was of
thin, whip-sawed pine boards with ample cracks at top and bottom, and,
the room being of small dimensions, they heard plainly. The Lieutenant
leaned forward, then with difficulty smothered an exclamation, for he
heard another voice now--the voice of John Gale. The words came to him
muffled but distinct, and he raised his hand to knock, when, suddenly
arrested, he seized Poleon and forced him to his knees, hissing into
his ear:

"Listen! Listen! For God's sake, listen!"

For the first time in his tempestuous life Ben Stark lost the iron
composure that had made his name a by-word in the West, and at sight of
his bitterest enemy seated in the dark of his own house waiting for him
he became an ordinary, nervous, frightened man faced by a great peril.
It was the utter unexpectedness of the thing that shook him, and before
he could regain his balance Gale spoke:

"I've come to settle, Bennett."

"What are you doing here?" the gambler stammered.

"I was up at the soldier's place just now and heard you. I didn't want
any interruptions, so I came here where we can be alone." He p