ine! What you want is a man, a master that will let you put the heel of
your shoe on his neck; not that skulker, who will get tired of you in a
year--and you of him. And then what? You are not the one to sit still;
neither am I. I live for myself, and you shall live for yourself,
too--not for a Swedish baron. They make a convenience of people like you
and me. A gentleman is better than an employer, but an equal partnership
against all the 'yporcrits is the thing for you and me. We'll go on
wandering the world over, you and I both free and both true. You are no
cage bird. We'll rove together, for we are of them that have no homes.
We are born rovers!"

She listened to him with the utmost attention, as if any unexpected
word might give her some sort of opening to get that dagger, that awful
knife--to disarm murder itself, pleading for her love at her feet. Again
she nodded at him thoughtfully, rousing a gleam in his yellow eyes,
yearning devotedly upon her face. When he hitched himself a little
closer, her soul had no movement of recoil. This had to be. Anything
had to be which would bring the knife within her reach. He talked more
confidentially now.

"We have met, and their time has come," he began, looking up into her
eyes. "The partnership between me and my gentleman has to be ripped up.
There's no room for him where we two are. Why, he would shoot me like a
dog! Don't you worry. This will settle it not later than tonight!"

He tapped his folded leg below the knee, and was surprised, flattered,
by the lighting up of her face, which stooped towards him eagerly and
remained expectant, the lips girlishly parted, red in the pale face, and
quivering in the quickened drawing of her breath.

"You marvel, you miracle, you man's luck and joy--one in a million! No,
the only one. You have found your man in me," he whispered tremulously.
"Listen! They are having their last talk together; for I'll do for your
gentleman, too, by midnight."

Without the slightest tremor she murmured, as soon as the tightening of
her breast had eased off and the words would come:

"I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry--with him."

The pause, the tone, had all the value of meditated advice.

"Good, thrifty girl!" he laughed low, with a strange feline gaiety,
expressed by the undulating movement of his shoulders and the sparkling
snap of his oblique eyes. "You are still thinking about the chance of
that swag. You'll make a good partner, that yo