out your going away with him. I excused it because you were
angry--so angry you'd even pick up a tramp for an escort. But what
interest do you take in that renegade?" His tones were acrid with
jealousy.

"I did not find him a renegade. I found him a mystery, Richard. And I
hope that some day I will know what the mystery is."

"Are you trying to drive me mad?"

"I am merely chatting along in order to keep you off a topic which
is distressing. I heard that your uncle intended to have the man
investigated after he came into the office here and made that brave
stand. I happened to hear the talk the young man made. Perhaps that
accounts for my curiosity. Did your uncle find out much about the man?"

"I don't know what he found out," declared Dodd, rapidly losing control
of himself. "But I propose to find out for myself."

"Please do, Richard," said the girl, ingenuously and earnestly. She
seemed to be losing some of the hauteur she had shown at the first of
their meeting.

"I'll find out enough to put him in jail, where he probably belongs. I'm
not going to insult you, Kate, by any more talk about a tramp. You can't
shift me from the main topic. Go home and talk with your mother, as I
have told you. We are going to be married!"

"Richard, our affair is ended."

"Then who is the man?"

"There is no man."

"If you say that and mean it, then you don't know women as well as I
know them. You don't know even yourself!" he declared. "I want to say
to you, Kate, that we are all walking on mighty thin ice. The sooner
you and I take hold of hands and get safely ashore--just you and I--the
better it will be. Just let your curiosity about other men fall asleep.
I tell you again, go home and talk with your mother."

He bowed, reached his hand to touch hers, but refrained when she turned
suddenly to her desk and resumed her work.

Young Dodd hurried out of the building without attempting to see his
uncle, and cooled his head and his passion and soothed his physical
discomfort by a headlong dash in his car back to the state's capital
city.

The girl took her courage in her hands and asked Mr. Peter Briggs, in
as matter-of-fact tone as she could muster, whether he did not want any
record copy made of his notes in regard to that person who had bearded
Colonel Dodd. But Mr. Briggs informed her that the matter was not of
sufficient importance.

"The fellow is merely a cheap, loafing sort--here to-day, there
to-morrow," said