've seen lots worse than
you start over again. All I'll say is that I'll give you the chance if
you want it. There's nothing in this life you're leading. You know the
end and the answer as well as I do. You've seen it many a time."

"God help me--I have!" she murmured. "Well, I--I'll think about it."

"And, meanwhile, tell me about this Jean Carnot," went on the colonel.
"You were married to him?"

"I thought I was."

"What sort of man was he? Come, sit down on this sand dune and tell me
all about it. I think I want that man."

"No more than I do," she said fiercely. "He left me as he would an old
coat he couldn't use any more! He cast me aside, trampled on me, left me
like a sick dog! Oh, God--"

For a moment she could not go on. But she calmed herself and resumed.
Then, by degrees, she told the whole, sordid story. It was common
enough--the colonel had listened to many like it before. And when it was
finished, brokenly and in tears, he put forth his hand on the shoulder
of Morocco Kate and said:

"Now, Kate, let's get down to business. Are you willing to help me
finish this up?"

"I'll do all I can, Colonel Ashley. But I don't see how we're going to
find this devil of a Jean."

"Leave that to me. Now where can I find you when I want you--in a hurry,
mind. I may want you in a great hurry. Where can I find you?"

"I'm stopping in the village. I'll arrange to be within call for the
next few days. Will it take long?"

"No, not very. If I can I'll clean it all up tomorrow. Things are
beginning to clear up. And now allow me the pleasure of walking back
to town with you. It's getting late and beginning to rain. I have an
umbrella, and you haven't."

And through the rain which began to fall, as though it might wash
away some of the sordid sin that had been told of in the darkness, the
strangely different couple walked through the dark night, Morocco Kate
as an ally of Colonel Ashley.

The clean, fresh sun was shining in through the windows of Colonel
Ashley's room at The Haven when he awakened the next morning. As
he sprang up and made ready for his bath he called toward the next
apartment:

"Are you up, Jack?"

"Just getting. Any rush?"

"Well, I think this may be our busy day, and again it may not. Better
tumble out."

"Just as you say. How you feeling, Colonel?"

"Never better. I feel just like fishing, and you--"

"'Nough said. I'm with you."

And then, as he started toward his bath, the colone