the placid,
unemphatic Teuton, had been at Worth and Sedan.

Though none of these memories delayed him a second, he brushed them from
him when the moon dipped. Darkness swooped down on the prairie, and it is
the darkness that suits rapine best; now, that he could see the trail no
longer, he shook the bridle, and the pace grew faster. The powdery snow
whirled behind him, the long, dim levels flitted past, until at last, with
heart thumping, he rode up a rise from whose crest he could see Cedar
Range. A great weight lifted from him--the row of windows were blinking
beside the dusky bluff! But even as he checked the horse the ringing of a
rifle came portentously out of the stillness. With a gasp he drove in his
heels and swept at a furious gallop down the slope.

XIII

UNDER FIRE

It was getting late and Torrance evidently becoming impatient, when
Clavering, who had ignored the latter fact as long as he considered it
advisable, glanced at Hetty with a smile. He stood by the piano in the big
hall at Cedar Range, and she sat on the music-stool turning over one of
the new songs he had brought her from Chicago.

"I am afraid I will have to go," he said. "Your father is not fond of
waiting."

Though Hetty was not looking at him directly, she saw his face, which
expressed reluctance still more plainly than his voice did; but just then
Torrance turned to them.

"Aren't you through with those songs yet, Clavering?" he said.

"I'm afraid I have made Miss Torrance tired," said Clavering. "Still, we
have music enough left us for another hour or two."

"Then why can't you stay on over to-morrow and get a whole night at it? I
want you just now."

Clavering glanced at Hetty, and, though she made no sign, fancied that she
was not quite pleased with her father.

"Am I to tell him I will?" he asked.

Hetty understood what prompted him, but she would not commit herself. "You
will do what suits you," she said. "When my father asks any one to Cedar I
really don't often make myself unpleasant to him."

Clavering's eyes twinkled as he walked towards the older man, while Hetty
crossed the room to where Miss Schuyler sat. Both apparently became
absorbed in the books Clavering had brought, but they could hear the
conversation of the men, and it became evident later that one of them
listened. Torrance had questions to ask, and Clavering answered them.

"Well," he said, "I had a talk with Purbeck which cost us fifty dollars.