here with her close to his heart, and her own palpitating
against his breast, he felt more than a match for mere facts and
conditions. It seemed ridiculous that he had allowed things to bar his
way so long. Now, he was thrice armed, and must triumph!

"I know now why the world was made," he declared, joyfully. "I know
why all the other wonderful women and all the other wonderful loves
from the beginning of time have been! It was," he announced with the
supreme egotism of the moment, "that I might compare them with this."

And so the resolve to be silent was cast away, and after it went the
sudden resolve to tell everything. Saxon, feeling only triumph, did
not realize that he had, in one moment, lost his second and third
battles.

An hour later, they strolled back together toward the house. Saxon was
burdened with the canvas on which he had painted his masterpiece. They
were silent, but walking on the milky way, their feet stirring nothing
meaner than star-dust. On the verandah, Steele met them, and handed
his friend a much-forwarded letter, addressed in care of the
Louisville club where he had dined. It bore the stamp of a South
American Republic.

It was not until he had gone to his room that night that the man had
time to glance at it, or even to mark its distant starting point.
Then, he tore open the envelope, and read this message:

"My Erstwhile Comrade:

"Though I've had no line from you in these years I don't
flatter myself that you've forgotten me. It has come to my
hearing through certain channels--subterranean, of
course--that your present name is Saxon and that you've
developed genius and glory as a paint-wizard.

"It seems you are now a perfectly respectable artist!
Congratulations--also bravo!

"My object is to tell you that I've tried to get word to you
that despite appearances it was not I who tipped you off to
the government. That is God's truth and I can prove it. I
would have written before, but since you beat it to God's
Country and went West your whereabouts have been a well-kept
secret. I am innocent, as heaven is my witness! Of course, I
am keeping mum.

"H. S. R."

CHAPTER VII

A short time ago, Saxon had felt stronger than all the forces of fate.
He had believed that circumstances were plastic and man invincible.
Now, as he bent forward in his chair, the South Amer