a
pistol, they will come, and now I can hardly see any reason to keep them
away. So you sent him to the house, my son? And Jason is still alive? And
you have got the paper? Can it be that I have failed in everything?
Strange how the cards fall even if we stack the deck. Ah, well, then it
is the pistols after all."

There was a blinding flash and the roar of a weapon close beside me, and
I heard Mademoiselle scream. My father turned to quiet his horse.

"Do not be alarmed, Mademoiselle," he said gently, "we are not killing
each other. I am merely using a somewhat rigorous method of bringing my
son to his senses."

He paused, reached under his cloak, drew a second pistol and fired again.
From the road there came a sound that seemed to ring pleasantly to my
father's ears.

"Nearer than I thought," he said brightly. "They should be here in three
minutes at the outside. Shall we sit a while and talk, my son? It is
gloomy here, I admit, but still, it has its advantages. They thought my
rendezvous was ten miles to the north. Lord, what fools they were!
Lawton bit at the letter I let him seize as though it were pork. Ah, if
it had not been for Jason! Well, everything must have an ending."

He threw his bridle over his arm, and was walking toward the doorstep,
lightly buoyant, as though some weight were lifted from his mind. Hastily
I seized his arm.

"Stop!" I cried. "What is to become of Mademoiselle? We cannot leave her
here like this. Have you forgotten she is with us?"

Seemingly still unhurried, he paused, and glanced toward the road, and
then back at me, and then for the first time he laughed, and his
laughter, genuine and care-free, gave me a start which the sound of his
pistol had not. The incongruity of it set my nerves on edge. Was there
nothing that would give him genuine concern?

"Good God, sir!" I shouted furiously. "There's nothing to laugh about!
Don't you hear them coming?"

"Ah," said my father, "I thought that would fetch you. So you have come
to your senses then, and we can go on together? Untie your horse, Henry,
while I charge the pistols."

My hand was on the bridle rein, when a shout close by us made me loosen
the knot more quickly than I intended. I could make out the black form of
a horseman moving towards us at full gallop.

"It must be Lawton," observed my father evenly. "He is well mounted, and
quite reckless. I suppose we had better be going. I shall help
Mademoiselle, if she will pe