for had gone, sat for five long minutes rigidly still with a set
white face and his hands clenched on the table.

"My daughter--playing the traitress--and worse! It is too hard to bear,"
he said.

Then he stood up, shaking the passion from him, when Clavering came in,
and, holding himself very stiff and square, turned to him.

"I don't know why you have told me--now--and do not want to hear," he
said. "Still, by the Lord who made us both, if you try to make use of this
knowledge for any purpose, or let a whisper get about, I'll crush you
utterly."

"Have I deserved these threats, sir?"

Torrance looked at him steadily. "Did you expect thanks? The man who
grooms her horses would tell me nothing--he lied like a gentleman. But
they are not threats. You found buying up mortgages--with our dollars--an
easy game."

"But--" said Clavering.

Torrance stopped him with a little scornful gesture. "I knew when I took
this thing up I would have to let my scruples go, and now--while I wonder
whether my hands will ever feel clean again--I'm going through. You are
useful to the committee, and I'll have to tolerate you."

Clavering turned away, with pulses throbbing furiously and rage in his
heart, though he had known what the cost would be when he staked
everything he hoped for on Larry's destruction; while his neighbours
noticed a change in Torrance when he once more sat down at the head of the
table. He seemed several years older, and his face was very grim.

"I believe I can promise you that Larry will make us no more trouble," he
said. "Mr. Clavering has a workable scheme, and it will only need the
Sheriff and a few men whom I will choose when I am ready."

Nobody seemed to consider it advisable to ask questions, and the men
dispersed; but as they went down the stairway, Allonby turned to
Torrance.

"This thing is getting too big for you and me," he said. "You have not
complained, but to-night one could fancy that it's breaking you. Now, I'm
not made like you, and when I think of what it has cost me I have got to
talk."

Torrance turned, and Allonby shivered as he met his eyes.

"It has cost me what every dollar I ever made could not buy me back," he
said, and the damp showed on his forehead as he checked a groan.

XXVIII

LARRY RIDES TO CEDAR

A soft wind swept the prairie, which was now bare of snow. Larry rode down
the trail that led through the Cedar Bluff. He was freely sprinkled with
mire, for sp