d in a dreadful eagerness of fear.

"Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
go!"

As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
the reassurance of a mother.

"Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
by force."

"I give you my solemn word." said Donnegan in torment, "that the colonel
shall not come near Landis while you're away with me."

"Your word!" murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. "Your
word!"

And Donnegan bowed his head.

But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.

"Oh, give them up!" she cried. "Give up my father and all his wicked
plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!"

The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.

"You shall learn in the end," he said to the girl, "that everything I
do, I do for you."

She cried out as if he had struck her.

"It's not worthy of you," she said bitterly. "You are keeping Jack
here--in peril--for my sake?"

"For your sake," said Donnegan.

She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.

"To keep you from needless lying," she said, "let me tell you that Jack
has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
you nothing! But as for me--I know everything; Jack told me."

"He has told you what? What?"

"About the woman you love."

"The woman I love?" echoed Donnegan, stupefied.

It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
her trembling.

"The Lebrun woman," she said. "Jack has told me."

"Did you tell her that?" he asked Landis.

"The who