gh
the billiard-room, which latter was closed on account of the day, and
had strolled out through the rear doorway, a short cut to the east gate.
That, then, seemed to complete the chain of evidence described by the
colonel, and the heart of Sandy Ray was seething when Foster bustled in,
while his voice, when presently there came reply, was as icily cold. All
the same he turned in his revolving chair and looked his visitor
straight in the eye, as he arose.

"What do you want him for?"

Foster flushed. He read unerringly the intense dislike in the young
officer's gaze, but he dissembled:

"To ride, 'bout four o'clock," was the matter-of-course reply.

"Major Dwight said both his horses were at your disposal. He's only had
one out to-day. Is Mrs. Dwight going to ride the other?"

Foster's eyelids shut to a narrow slit. His mustache began to bristle at
the ends. Now the red was flitting and his face was turning sallow.

"While I consider that none of your business, Mr. Ray--yes!"

"Then," said Sandy, his cheek white, his lips set, his eyes aflame, "you
can't have mine."

The low hum of voices, the gurgle of laughter drifting through the
stove-pipe hole and through the crevices of the pine partition from the
lounging-room beyond, seemed to die away almost at the moment. Ray had
hardly uplifted his voice. For an instant a silence fell on the facing
pair in the Exchange office--the one rather tall, fair, stylishly garbed
in the latest civilian fashion; the other short, slender, trimly built,
with dark curling hair and snapping black-brown eyes; both men trembling
now, but neither dropping an eyelid. Then with clinching fist and fiery
eyes the elder took a step forward. He was throwing off the mask. He was
speaking angrily, audibly:

"By Heaven, Ray, if I didn't happen to know that you are, or had been,
madly in love with Mrs. Dwight, I--I'd consider that an insult."

"Well," came the ready response, "why not so consider it--anyhow?"

In an instant the larger, heavier, stronger man had hurled himself on
the slender junior and, one sinewy hand on the back of the neck, the
other at the throat, Foster shook him furiously--but only for a second.
No sooner did Ray feel himself seized than he "let go" with both fists,
and both fists found their mark on Foster's face--one swing, the right,
stinging him on the unguarded jaw. Two more followed in the flash of a
second, and Foster, stunned and amazed, dropped his hold and fo