e open from dawn until dawn--the jail.

There, in that desolate refuge, lay Happy Fear, surrendered sturdily by
himself at Joe's word. The picture of the little man was clear and
fresh in Ariel's eyes, and though she had seen him when he was newly
come from a thing so terrible that she could not realize it as a fact,
she felt only an overwhelming pity for him. She was not even
horror-stricken, though she had shuddered. The pathos of the shabby
little figure crossing the street toward the lighted doors had touched
her. Something about him had appealed to her, for he had not seemed
wicked; his face was not cruel, though it was desperate. Perhaps it
was partly his very desperation which had moved her. She had
understood Joe, when he told her, that this man was his friend; and
comprehended his great fear when he said: "I've got to clear him! I
promised him."

Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to save him! I've got
to!" She had answered gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying to keep up with
him. "He's a good man," he said. "I've known few better, given his
chances. And none of this would have happened except for his old-time
friendship for me. It was his loyalty--oh, the rarest and absurdest
loyalty!--that made the first trouble between him and the man he shot.
I've got to clear him!"

"Will it be hard?"

"They may make it so. I can only see part of it surely. When his wife
left the office, she met Cory on the street. You saw what a pitiful
kind of fool she was, irresponsible and helpless and feather-brained.
There are thousands of women like that everywhere--some of them are
'Court Beauties,' I dare say--and they always mix things up; but they
are most dangerous when they're like Claudine, because then they live
among men of action like Cory and Fear. Cory was artful: he spent the
day about town telling people that he had always liked Happy; that his
ill feeling of yesterday was all gone; he wanted to find him and shake
his hand, bury past troubles and be friends. I think he told Claudine
the same thing when they met, and convinced the tiny brainlet of his
sincerity. Cory was a man who 'had a way with him,' and I can see
Claudine flattered at the idea of being peace-maker between 'two such
nice gen'lemen as Mr. Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest
asseveration--quite genuine, too--is that she doesn't like to have the
gen'lemen making trouble about her! So the poor imbecile led him to
where her husband