s troubled too; but under the pain a glad
resignation seemed to shine out. She said, very softly:

"My dear friend, a woman's heart is a wonderful enigma. A girl's first
love is far more wonderful. It is beyond reason, beyond understanding,
incapable of analysis. And that is all the mystery with Natalie. She is
the soul of purity, Captain, and more honest than honor. You have seen,
and others have seen, that she likes you and aches to believe in you;
but, innocent soul that she is, Leyden met her first, was the first man
to apply himself to winning her affections, and he has fascinated her.
You know she has left the Mission to go back to Java with him?
Yes--Then, knowing what you do of her, can't you see that this is only
another example of the splendid loyalty that actuates her? My good
fellow--" Mrs. Goring's tone became almost motherly, and Barry
worshipped her for it--"poor Natalie is to experience a sad
disillusionment very soon; she will suffer; but from the suffering she
will emerge as clean as before in mind and body, and when her loyalty is
enlisted in the proper place, the fortunate man will be glad that such
loyalty is in her."

"That is all very well," Barry retorted hotly. "But why is she to go
through all this trouble? Surely you have had chances enough to put her
right. Leyden should have been run off the place when he first arrived.
Vandersee is full of mystery, too, and I can't for my life see why he,
if he is, as he says, a Government man, can't take charge of the
schooner there, flog the jungle with trackers, and finish Leyden and his
opium runners off-hand. Why, he has had a dozen chances. If my hands had
not been tied by secret orders and later circumstances, I could have
potted the beggar myself, easily. Now Miss Sheldon is gone. Where? You
say Leyden fascinates her. Well, has she joined him? Where can she find
him, in this maze of poisonous bush?"

"Let me assure you again, Captain Barry, that Mr. Vandersee is just what
he has represented himself to be. Though things have happened to make
you doubt him perhaps, believe me if I say that Leyden will not be
killed by any chance bullet; he will be caught, and caught when his
capture will have the result of bringing all the tangled threads
together in the presence of every one vitally concerned. There is
something far, far more serious than opium smuggling, or Houten's
affairs, or his conflict with your party, for him to answer for. He will
answer f