ink of what a conflagration might blaze from the kindling.

"I'm not discussing theories," he said a bit shortly. "I'm talking
about a mountain girl whom I take it you would never marry--and if
not----" He spread his hands and left the sentence unfinished.

"And if not?" Halloway caught him up. "What has marriage necessarily
to do with love? There is more honesty and stimulation in the
life-story of any _grande amoureuse_ than a dozen of your stodgy fraus."

"I'm going to bed," declared Will Brent. "But--leave Alexander alone.
I don't think she'd see eye to eye with you on the subject of the
_grande amoureuse_."

"That only foreshadows a duel of wills--conflict--drama."

Halloway paused and laughed, and after that he went on with eyes that
glowed admiringly.

"I dare say she never heard of an Amazon--and she's a splendid one.
She dares to live a man's life in a country where other women tamely
accept thraldom! Perhaps it is a great adventure. I have seen a
meteor and I shall stay."

"Of course you know," Brent reminded him evenly, "the first hint that
you are a millionaire masquerading as a native will engulf you in local
suspicion."

"I don't mean that they shall learn that." Suddenly Halloway's head
bent forward a little and his brows contracted. "They _can't_ learn it
except through you."

"Precisely," said the smaller man, with dry brevity. If the short
answer brought a cloud to Halloway's face it was one that cleared
immediately into laughter.

"We haven't reached that bridge yet," he announced, "and we needn't
open up a Brent-Halloway feud until we get there."

There was a moment's pause, after which the big fellow continued.

"Since seeing the helpless maid, whom you seek to protect, holding back
that bunch of desperadoes, it occurs to me that she can give a fairly
good account of herself. Gad, it was epic!"

"Then why did you intervene?"

Halloway slowly turned his head and lifted his brows in frank amazement.

"Do you seriously ask? Did you suppose it was because I feared for
her? Why, man, the blue flame in her eyes would have licked that crew
without the aid of the gun. I intervened because when opportunity
knocks, I open. I had enough dramatic sense to recognise my cue for a
telling entrance; and I entered."

"Jack," inquired Brent, "how did you ever happen to know this remote
life well enough to pass as a native?"

"Born here," was the laconic reply. But the other pressed