o sacrifice him, his
interests, the interests of his friends, as she had been to accept the
price offered for the blood of his twin brother.

So the eyes of the night looked down upon the haunting figure of a man
who knew neither mercy, nor pity, nor hope. The world of human
happiness had closed its doors upon him, and his whole spirit and body
demanded a fierce retaliation.

That was the mood which looked out of his coldly shining eyes. That
was the mood which drove the horse under him at a headlong gait, and
left his spurs blood-stained upon his heels. That was the mood that
left him caring nothing for any danger that might lurk under cover of
the starlit dark of night. The fierceness of his temper demanded
outlet. Bodily outlet. Active conflict. Anything, so that a burning
lust for hurt should be satisfied. He cared nothing at all for
himself. No bodily suffering could compare with the anguish of mind he
had passed through, was still passing through. And so he rode headlong
till the youth accompanying him was hard put to it to keep pace with
him.

The hammering of the horses' hoofs upon the sun-baked earth was a
fitting accompaniment to his mood. The sigh of the night breezes
through the trees was no less desolate than his heart. Nor was the
darkness one whit more dark than the stream of thought which flowed
through his hot brain.

Not one word did he exchange with the man behind him. In truth the
youth who had brought the summons had no part in the thing that was
happening, at least not in Jeffrey Masters' mind. There was no one
besides himself in this. There was just himself and his goal--whatever
that might bring forth--with a wild, almost insane desire to act
fiercely and without mercy should opportunity offer.

The land rose and fell, from hill to valley, from valley to hill. The
way lay through avenues of bluff-lined grass, or across hollows of
virgin pasture. Trickling mountain streams barred the way, only to be
passed without a thought of their depth, or the dangers of their
treacherous, sodden banks. The mountain barrier ahead, looming darkly
forbidding in the starlight, with its mazing hollows and woodland
crowns, was incapable of inspiration at the moment. There are moments
when Nature's profoundest awe is powerless to affect the mind of man.
These were such moments. The whole mind of Jeffrey Masters was
absorbed till there was no room for any influence which did not arise
out of