ut he did not believe yet that Kenwardine meant to exploit
his recklessness. It would not be worth while, for one thing, since he
had never had much money to lose and now had none. Besides, Kenwardine
was not the man to take a mean advantage of his guest, though Jake could
not say as much for some of his friends. Anyhow, he meant to go to the
house because he felt that Clare might need his help. He did not see how
that might be, but he had a half-formed suspicion that she might have to
suffer on her father's account, and if anything of the kind happened, he
meant to be about.

Yet he was not in love with her. She attracted him strongly, and he
admitted that it would be remarkably easy to become infatuated, but did
not mean to let this happen. Though often rash, he had more sense and
self-control than his friends believed, and realized that Clare was not
for him. He could not tell how he had arrived at this conclusion, but
there it was, and he knew he was not mistaken. Sometimes he wondered with
a twinge of jealousy what she thought of Brandon.

By and by he roused himself from his reflections and looked about. There
was no moon and a thin mist that had stolen out of the jungle drifted
past the shack. A coffee-pot and two cups stood upon a table near his
chair, and one cup was half empty, as Dick had left it when he was
unexpectedly summoned to the dam, where work was going on. The veranda
lamp had been put out, because Jake did not want to read and a bright
light would have attracted moths and beetles, but Dick had left a lamp
burning in his room, and a faint illumination came through the curtain on
the open window. Everything was very quiet except when the ringing of
hammers and the rattle of a crane rose from the dam.

Looking farther round, Jake thought he distinguished the blurred outline
of a human figure in the mist, but was not surprised. Some ironwork that
made a comfortable seat lay near the shack and the figure had been there
before. For all that, he imagined the man was wasting his time and
keeping an unnecessary watch. Then his thoughts again centered on Clare
and Kenwardine and some time had passed when he looked up. Something had
disturbed him, but he could not tell what it was, and on glancing at the
spot where he had seen the figure he found it had gone.

Next moment a board in the house creaked softly, as if it had been
trodden on; but the boards often did so after a change of temperature,
and Jake s