at I should lead them. And I promised. How can I climb
down now?"

She looked at him, for a moment, full in the eyes, and her own kindled.

"You can't. No, of course you can't. I am not such a selfish idiot as
to dream of expecting such a thing. Why, it is a distinct call to
usefulness, to distinction. I would not try to hold you back from it
now, no, not even if I could."

"But, understand this," he went on. "I will not move in the matter
until I have seen you in safety--in entire and complete safety. Then--
it is a duty. What would you think of me if I shirked that sort of
duty? Would it not be to put a stamp of truth on the lies some of my
kind friends have been spreading about me?"

"I won't say I would think nothing of you, for I can't imagine, let
alone contemplate, such a contingency. But--now we are on the subject--
I would like to hear your side of--of--all these stories. Don't think
that I doubt you--never think that, dearest--but I would like to be able
to fling the lie in their faces."

He was silent for a few moments as they paced up and down. They were
out of earshot of the stockade but in full view of all within it. To
all intents and purposes they were only two people walking up and down
in ordinary converse, as a couple of ship-board acquaintances might walk
up and down the deck of a passenger ship.

"Some years ago," he resumed, "I had a quarrel with a man--a man who had
been my friend. He had played me a dirty trick--a very dirty trick--the
nature of it doesn't matter, any more than his identity, now. I am not
an angel, and have my share of original sin, which includes a temper,
though since then I have tried my level best to keep it within bounds.
Well, from words we got to blows, and I was a fair boxer--" here Clare
half smiled, in the midst of her vivid interest, as she remembered the
tribute her brother-in-law had paid to his powers in that line, even
while decrying his courage.

"In the course of the scrimmage I struck him a blow that felled him. He
lay motionless, and I and others thought he was dead. We brought him
round though, but he had a bad concussion of the brain, and for weeks
hovered between life and death. Moreover, he has never been the same
man since. If I lived for a thousand years I could never forget what I
went through during that time. Well, in the result I made a vow, a most
solemn vow, that never again, even under the extremest of provocation,
woul