rth
trial or anywhere else for the matter of that; there were bounds set
even to her reckless disregard of what Mount Hope held to be right and
proper.

"Oh, no, you're very kind, but I don't think I should care to see poor
Jack now."

She gave a little shiver of horror as if at the mere idea. This was for
the gambler, but her real feeling was far deeper than he, suspicious as
he was, could possibly know.

"Why do you 'poor Jack' him to me?" said Gilmore sullenly.

Evelyn opened her fine eyes in apparent astonishment.

"He is one of my oldest friends. I have known him all my life!" she
said.

"Well, one's friends should keep out of the sort of trouble he's made
for himself," observed Gilmore in surly tones.

"Yes,--perhaps--" answered Evelyn absently.

"Look here, I don't want to talk to you about North anyhow; can't we hit
on some other topic?" asked Gilmore.

It maddened him even to think of the part the accused man had played in
her life.

"Why have you and Marsh turned against him?" she asked.

The gambler considered for an instant.

"Do you really want to know? Well, you see he wasn't square; that does a
man up quicker than anything else."

"I don't believe it!" she cried.

"It's so,--ask Marsh; we found him to be an all-right crook; then's when
we quit him," he said, nodding and smiling grimly.

There was something in his manner which warned her that his real meaning
was intentionally obscured. She remembered that Marsh had once boasted
of having proof that she was in North's rooms the afternoon of the
murder and it flashed across her mind that if any one really knew of her
presence there it was Gilmore himself. She studied him furtively, and
she observed that his black waxed mustache shaded a pair of lips that
wore a mirthless smile, and what had at first been no more than an
undefined suspicion grew into a certainty. Gilmore shifted uneasily in
his chair. He felt that since their last meeting he had lost ground with
her.

"What's the matter,--why do you keep me at arm's length; what have I
done, anyhow?" he asked impatiently.

"Do I keep you at arm's length? Well, perhaps you need to be kept
there," she said.

"You should know what brings me here,--why it is I can't keep away--"

"How should I know, unless you tell me?" she said softly.

Gilmore bent toward her, his eyes lustrous with suppressed feeling.

"Isn't that another of your little jokes, Evelyn? Do you really want me
to tell