dictiveness in it, but whether there was more than
this he could never tell.

"There's just another thing," he said in a hoarse, strained whisper as
Alton bent over him. "Come nearer--a little nearer still. Now there
was another man as well as Hallam."

Alton glancing round saw that the others had not heard, and stooped a
trifle further as the cracked lips moved again. Nobody caught what
Damer told him, but when he straightened himself again his face was
white and grim, and he went out without a word to any one. Then the
flicker of a smile came into the eyes of the dying man, and he moved
his head so that his face was hidden. The doctor, crossing over
softly, looked down on him and signed to the others that they might
leave the room.

"He may last an hour or two, but I don't think he will speak again," he
said.

In the meanwhile Alton strode with hands clenched into the shadows of
the silent pines. He had long been troubled by vague suspicions, and
had driven them away, but he could not doubt what Damer had told him,
and groaned as he stood face to face with the verity. He had been too
proud to stoop at any time to take an unfair advantage of an enemy, but
he could not lightly forget a wrong, and there was a trace of stubborn
vindictiveness within him. Hallam had brought him down to ruin, and
thrice struck at his life by treachery, and now Damer's testimony had
placed his enemy in his hand. He had but to close it and crush him,
but he also realized with fierce anger what this would cost him, for
Hallam had, it seemed, protected himself effectively. If he dragged
Hallam down Deringham must fall with him, and while that consideration
alone would not have stayed him in spite of the curious pride of race
and family which he had become sensible of of late, it was evident that
his daughter must suffer too. She had done no wrong, and Alton, who
thought of her with a great tenderness, dare not contemplate all that
the revelation would cost her.

It would have been bitter to let his enemy go free, had he stood alone,
but that was, he realized, what no man can do, and there were behind
him with their future linked to his the ranchers of Somasco whose
safety demanded that he should put it out of Hallam's power to do them
a further injury. It would also be so simple. He had but to hold his
hand, and Horton would take all the action that was needful.

Then it became more plain to him that even at the cost of his