leap.

"No, you don't! Not by a damned sight, you don't!"

Kirkwood saw them both clearly in their attitude of antagonism--the wife
who had wronged him, the friend who had betrayed him.

"You don't shake me so easily. I want my share of the profits. It was a
low trick--getting rid of me so you could spend your money on yourself;
humiliating me by showing me up as a drunkard in the divorce court. I
owe you a good one for that!"

"Not a cent!" she repeated, lifting her head in mockery of his clumsy
attempt to becloud the real issue.

Her taunting tone maddened him; without warning he gripped her throat
roughly. His tightening clasp stifled her cry as she struggled to free
herself.

Kirkwood stood suddenly beside them, caught Holton by the collar, and
flung him back. Holton's arm was up instantly to ward off an expected
blow. He turned guardedly, and his arm fell as he recognized Kirkwood.

"So that's the ticket! It was a trap, was it?" And then his anger
mounting, he flung round at Lois. "So this is what brought you back!
Well, it doesn't lower my price any! He can have you and be damned to
him, but I double my price!"

"This is my property," said Kirkwood coldly; "if you don't leave
instantly, I'll turn you over to the police."

"She's come back to you, has she! Well, you needn't be so set up about
it. She's anybody's woman for the asking; you ought to have learned
that--"

Kirkwood's stick fell with a sharp swish across his shoulders.

"Leave these grounds at once or I'll send you to the lockup!"

Holton looked coweringly from one to the other. The strangeness of the
encounter was in the mind of each: that the years had slipped away and
that Kirkwood was defending her from the man for whom she had abandoned
him. An unearthly quiet lay upon the garden. Children's voices rose
faintly on the silvery April night from the grounds beyond. Far away,
beyond the station, a locomotive puffed slowly on a steep grade. The
noises of the town seemed eerily blurred and distant.

"Clear out! Your business here is finished. And don't come back," said
Kirkwood firmly.

"She asked me to meet her here;--you must have known it; it was a damned
vile trick--" Holton broke out violently; but Kirkwood touched him with
the end of his stick, pointed toward the gate, and repeated his order
more sharply. Holton whirled on his heel, found an opening in the hedge,
and left them, the boughs snapping behind him.

Kirkwood was the fi