hold over me, and they forced me to use you
as their tool. They bled me, as I, in turn, bled you. Oh, it was all a
rotten game, and I'm glad the end's at hand. I suppose it's all up now?"
she asked Blossom.

"The end is, as far as it concerns you and me," he said. "I'm going
to confess, and take my medicine. Minnie, I've lied to give this woman
money to prevent her exposing me. Now I'm through. I've told my last
lie, and given my last dollar. Thank God--who has been better to me than
I deserve--thank God! I'm still young enough to make good the money
I've lost. The lies I can't undo, but I can tell the truth. I'm going to
confess everything!"

"Oh, LeGrand!" cried Minnie, and she held out her hands to him.
"Not--not everything!"

"Yes, the whole rotten business. That's the only way to begin over
again, and begin clean. I'll come through clean!"

"Oh!" murmured Minnie. "It will be so--so hard!"

"Yes," and LeGrand gritted his teeth, "it isn't going to be easy; but
it'll be a bed of roses compared to what I've been lying on the last
year. This woman had such a hold on me that I couldn't clear myself
before--that is, clear myself of grave charges. But now I can. This is
the end. I can prove that I wasn't mixed up in the Roswell de luxe book
case, and that's what she's been holding over me."

"The Roswell case!" faltered Minnie.

"Yes, you don't know about it, but I'll tell you, later. Now I'm free.
This is the end. I came here to-night to tell her so. How you happened
to follow me I don't know."

"I didn't follow, LeGrand. It was all an accident."

"Then it's a lucky accident, Minnie. This is the end. From now on--"

"Yes, it's the end!" bitterly cried the other woman. "It's the end of
everything. Oh, if I could only make it the end for Jean Carnot, I'd be
satisfied. He made me what I am--an outcast from the world. If I could
find Jean Carnot--"

And then, with the suddenness of a bird wheeling in mid air, the blonde
woman turned and rushed away in the darkness.

For an instant Colonel Ashley hesitated in his hiding place. And then he
murmured:

"I guess you'll keep, LeGrand Blossom, and you, too, Minnie Webb.
Morocco Kate needs watching. And I think, now, she'll lead me right
where I've been wanting to go for a long time. The darkness is fast
fading away," which was a strange thing to say, seeing that the night
was blacker than ever.

Back on the desolate moor, near the bridge under which the black tide