was
racing. But Rossland saw nothing of that. He observed only the nod, the
cool smile on Alan's lips, the apparent nonchalance with which he was
meeting the situation. It pleased Graham's agent. He reseated himself in
the desk-chair and motioned Alan to another chair near him.

"I thought you were badly hurt," said Alan. "Nasty knife wound you got."

Rossland shrugged his shoulders. "There you have it again, Holt--the
hell of letting a pretty face run away with you. One of the Thlinkit
girls down in the steerage, you know. Lovely little thing, wasn't she?
Tricked her into my cabin all right, but she wasn't like some other
Indian girls I've known. The next night a brother, or sweetheart, or
whoever it was got me through the open port. It wasn't bad. I was out of
the hospital within a week. Lucky I was put there, too. Otherwise I
wouldn't have seen Mrs. Graham one morning--through the window. What a
little our fortunes hang to at times, eh? If it hadn't been for the girl
and the knife and the hospital, I wouldn't be here now, and Graham
wouldn't be bleeding his heart out with impatience--and you, Holt,
wouldn't be facing the biggest opportunity that will ever come into
your life."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Alan, hiding his face in the
smoke of his cigar and speaking with an apparent indifference which had
its effect upon Rossland. "Your presence inclines me to believe that
luck has rather turned against me. Where can my advantage be?"

A grim seriousness settled in Rossland's eyes, and his voice became cool
and hard. "Holt, as two men who are not afraid to meet unusual
situations, we may as well call a spade a spade in this matter, don't
you think so?"

"Decidedly," said Alan.

"You know that Mary Standish is really Mary Standish Graham, John
Graham's wife?"

"Yes."

"And you probably know--now--why she jumped into the sea, and why she
ran away from Graham."

"I do."

"That saves a lot of talk. But there is another side to the story which
you probably don't know, and I am here to tell it to you. John Graham
doesn't care for a dollar of the Standish fortune. It's the girl he
wants, and has always wanted. She has grown up under his eyes. From the
day she was fourteen years old he has lived and planned with the thought
of possessing her. You know how he got her to marry him, and you know
what happened afterward. But it makes no difference to him whether she
hates him or not. He _wants_ her. And th