Kelly look at him
hard. "And what would you want to be there for?" he demanded
aggressively. "Isn't one bearer of evil tidings enough?"

Kieff smiled. "I wonder if the lady left any message behind," he
suggested. "Possibly she has written a note to explain her own
absence. How long did the good Burke propose to be away?"

"Two or three nights in the first place. But he is coming back
to-morrow." A sudden idea flashed upon Kelly. "Ah, p'raps she's
hoping to be back before he is! Maybe there's more to this than we
understand! I'll not go over. I'll wait and see. She may be back
in the morning, she and young Guy too. They're old friends.
P'raps there's nothing in it but just a jaunt."

Kieff's laugh had a sound like the slipping of a stone in a slimy
cave. "You always had ideas," he remarked. "But they will
scarcely be back from Brennerstadt by the morning. Can't you
devise some means of persuading Burke to extend his visit to the
period originally intended? Then perhaps they might return in
time."

Kelly looked at him sternly. That laugh was abominable in his
ears. "Faith, I'll go now," he said. "And I'll go alone. You've
done your part, and I'll not trouble you at all to help me do mine."

Kieff turned to go. "I always admired your sense of duty,
Donovan," he said. "Let us hope it will bring you out on the right
side,--and your friends the Rangers with you!"

He was gone with the words, silent as a shadow on the wall, and
Kelly was left wondering why he had not seized the bearer of evil
tidings and kicked the horrible laughter out of him.

"Faith, I'll do it when I get to Brennerstadt," he said to himself
vindictively. "But it's friends first, eh, Burke, my lad?--Ah,
Burke, my boy, friends first!"

CHAPTER XI

THE SHARP CORNER

Was it only a few months since last she had looked out over the
barren _veldt_ from the railway at Ritzen? It seemed to Sylvia
like half a lifetime.

In the dark of the early morning she sat in the southward-bound
train on her way to Brennerstadt, and tried to recall her first
impressions. There he had stood under the lamp waiting for
her--the man whom she had taken for Guy. She saw herself springing
to meet him with eager welcome on her lips and swift-growing
misgiving at her heart. How good he had been to her! That thought
came up above the rest, crowding out the memory of her first
terrible dismay. He had surrounded her with a care as chivalro