hispered the girl--"not so fast!"

"Do you think it rains money here?" returned Julie, closing her red
fists upon the table, "that all you have to do is to ask for it? _Ah,
mais non, alors!_"

The boy slunk back in his chair staring at the tallow dip
disconsolately. The girl gritted her small teeth--somehow, she felt
abler than he to get it out of Julie in the end.

"You stole it, _hein?_" cried Julie, "like your father. Name of a dog!
it is the same old trick that, and it brings no good. _Allons!_" she
resumed after a short pause. "_Depeche toi!_ Get out for your ducks--I'm
going to bed."

"Give me four hundred," pleaded the boy.

"Not a sou!" cried Julie, bringing her fist down on the greasy table,
and she shot a jealous glance at the girl.

Without a word, young Garron rose dejectedly, got into his goatskin
coat, picked up his gun and, turning, beckoned to the girl.

"Go on!" she cried; "I'll come later."

"He is an infant," said she to Julie, when young Garron had closed the
door behind him. "He has no courage. You know the fix we are in--the
Commissaire of Police in Paris already has word of it."

Julie did not reply; she still sat with her clenched fists outstretched
on the table.

"He has forged his uncle's check," snapped the girl.

Julie did not reply.

"_Ah, c'est comme ca!_" sneered the girl with a cool laugh--"and when
he is in jail," she cried aloud, "_Eh, bien--quoi?_"

"He will not have _you_, then," returned Julie faintly.

"Ah----" she exclaimed. She slipped her tense little body into her thick
automobile coat and with a contemptuous toss of her chin passed out into
the night, leaving the door open.

"Jacques!" she called shrilly--"Jacques!--_Attends._"

"_Bon!_" came his voice faintly in reply from afar on the marsh.

After some moments Julie got slowly to her feet, crossed the dirt floor
of the hut and closing the door dropped the bar through the staples.
Then for the space of some minutes she stood by the table struggling
with a jealous rage that made her strong knees tremble. She who had
saved his life, who had loved him from babyhood--she told herself--and
what had he done for her in return? The great Paris that she knew
nothing of had stolen him; Paris had given him _her_--that little viper
with her red mouth; Paris had ruined him--had turned him into a thief
like his father. Silently she cursed his uncle. Then her rage reverted
again to the girl. She thought too, of her own l