fe, her high soul, flung to a devouring swine.

And by the rules of the game he couldn't open his lips to utter a word
of warning! That was the worst of it, that was the worst of it. No,
not by the rules of the game; not, for that matter, by the rules of
life; for the latter run that only can the person concerned see with
his or her own eyes what a loved one's character is, and must make and
abide by her own judgments.

Steele Weir all at once stopped in his tracks. He stared straight
before him for a time seeing Janet Hosmer's face as it appeared when
she anxiously gazed at him from Martinez' door, coming out of the
night like a pallid moon-flower. At that instant she had feared he had
been wounded; her heart was fluttering with anguish. The tension of
his body relaxed and his hands slowly unclosed and involuntarily his
eyes went up to the moon sailing serenely in the sky above the
treetops and the flat-roofed adobe houses. What vaster blessing could
life bestow than to have such a look come seeking one beloved!

He went on thoughtfully.

"She shall not marry him," he said to himself, with a quick resolve.

What were the rules of any game when an innocent girl's happiness was
at stake? Did he care for conventions, or even the contempt she
herself might feel for him for apparently belittling her lover? He
could stand that, so that her eyes were opened and the fellow's yellow
heart made plain. At the proper time he should act, view his part as
she might. A snap of his fingers for being misunderstood! He would go
his own way afterwards.

The thing had its curious features, too. No mistake, the shock of
hearing Sorenson senior talking to the sheriff and the crowd, working
up sentiment, had stirred her indignation and wonder and uneasiness
and alarm. She was no fool, as she had said. She had a clear,
practical mind, give it something to work on. Her intuition had
immediately grasped the fact that there might be cellars under the
Sorenson household of which she knew nothing and which should be
promptly entered with a strong light. Whether the momentary desire
would last, that was the question. To-morrow, or the first time she
found herself in Ed Sorenson's reassuring presence, she might consider
that her brain had been upset by events of this night, jiggled awry in
a sort of moonlight madness, and her apprehensions as to happiness
unfounded shadows.

Well, Weir would strike later.

He turned into the main street. E