, sir. Didst see Black Jim slip out this way, or hear a scream
a laal while gone by?"

"I saw no one," answered Geoffrey, "but I heard the scream. It was not
unlike a hare squealing in a snare. You and I must have been stalking
each other, Evans, and Black Jim can't be here."

The rest came up as they spoke, and Captain Franklin said, "You seem
badly disappointed at missing your old enemy, Thurston. I never saw
you look so savage. I expect Black Jim has tricked us, after all."

"I've had several troubles lately, and don't find much amusement in
hunting poachers who aren't there," said Geoffrey. "You will excuse me
from going back with you."

He departed across the meadows, at a swinging pace, and the keeper, who
stared after him, commented:

"Something gradely wrang with Mr. Geoffrey to-night. They're an ill
folk to counter yon, and it's maybe as well for Black Jim as Mr.
Geoffrey didn't get hold on him."

Geoffrey saw no more of Millicent, but once he visited her younger
sister, a gentle invalid, who, because of the friendship which had long
existed between them, said: "You must try to believe I mean it in
kindness when I say that I am not wholly sorry, Geoffrey. You and
Millicent would never have gotten on well together, and while I wish
the awakening could have happened in a more creditable way, you will
realize--when somebody else makes you happy--that all has been for the
best."

"That day will be long in coming," declared the man, grimly, and the
sick girl laid a thin white hand on his hard one as she answered him.

"It is not a flattering speech, and you must not lose faith in all of
us," the invalid went on. "Lying still here, helpless, I have often
thought about both of you, and I feel that you have done well in
choosing a new life in a new country. When you go out, Geoffrey, you
will take my fervent wishes for your welfare with you."

Janet Austin was frail and worn by pain. Her pale face flushed a
little as the man suddenly stooped and touched her forehead with his
lips.

"God bless you for your kindly heart," he said. "A ruined man has very
few friends, and many acquaintances are waiting to convince him that
his downfall is the result of his own folly, but"--and he straightened
his wiry frame, while his eyes glinted--"they have not seen the end,
and even if beaten, there is satisfaction in a stubborn, single-handed
struggle."

Janet Austin, perhaps thinking of her own helplessness,