ow." The
affectionate tone told Elinor what a loving guardianship was given to
the unknown orphan child.

"There was a man here to see Uncle Lloyd just after he left this
evening. The same man that brought a little package for you the night we
came home. I suppose he comes from your part of the state out West, for
he seemed to know you and Bug. He asked me if Bug ever played along the
river and if he was a shy child. He was a strange-looking man, and
I thought he had the cruelest face I ever saw, but I am no expert on
strange faces."

Victor did not wait for another word.

"I must find Bug right away. You can't think what he is to me, Elinor,"
and he hurried away.

At the bend in the Walnut Vic saw Bug's little scarlet stocking cap
beside the flat stone. The twilight was almost gone, but the glistening
river reflected on the torn bushes above the bank-full stream.

The crushing agony of the first minutes made them seem like hours. And
then the college discipline put in its work. Vic stopped and reasoned.

"Bug isn't down there. He never goes near the river. That strange man is
Tom Gresh. He killed my father and he's laid a trap for me. He doesn't
want to kill Bug. He wants to keep him to workout vengeance and hate on
me. He says he'll send me to my father if I go near him. Well, I'm going
so near he'll not doubt who I am, and I'll have Bug unharmed if I have
to send Gresh where my father could not go even with water to cool his
tongue. A man may fight with a man as he would fight with a beast to
save himself or something dearer than himself from beastly destruction,
Fenneben says. That's the battle before me now, and it's to the death."

The tiger light was in the yellow eyes as never before and the stern jaw
was set, as Victor Burleigh hurried away. And this was the man who, such
a little while ago, was debating with himself over the quiet possession
of Bug Buler's inheritance. Truly the Mastery comes very near to such as
he.

It was with tiger-like step and instinct, too, that the young man went
leaping up the dark, frost-coated glen. About the mouth of the cave the
blackness was appalling. It seemed a place apart, cursed with the frown
of Nature. Yet in the April time, the sweetest moments of Vic's young
life had been spent in this very spot that now showed all the difference
between Love and Hate.

As he neared the opening of the cavern he guarded his footsteps more
carefully. The jungle beast was alert w