rstanding, an engagement between you?" he faltered, scarcely
knowing how best to resent such utterance.

"You may place your own construction upon what I have said," was the
quiet answer. "The special relations existing between Miss Gillis and
myself chance to be no business of yours. However, I will consent to
say this--I do enjoy a relationship to her that gives me complete
authority to say what I have said to you. I regret having been obliged
by your persistency to speak with such plainness, but this knowledge
should prove sufficient to control the actions of a gentleman."

For a moment the soldier did not answer, his emotions far too strong to
permit of calm utterance, his lips tightly shut. He felt utterly
defeated. "Your language is sufficiently explicit," he acknowledged,
at last. "I ask pardon for my unwarranted intrusion."

At the door he paused and glanced back toward that motionless figure
yet standing with one hand grasping the back of the chair.

"Before I go, permit me to ask a single question," he said, frankly.
"I was a friend of old Ben Gillis, and he was a friend to my father
before me. Have you any reason to suspect that he was not Naida
Gillis's father?"

Hampton took one hasty step forward. "What do you mean?" he exclaimed,
fiercely, his eyes two coals of fire.

Brant felt that the other's display of irritation gave him an
unexpected advantage.

"Nothing that need awaken anger, I am sure. Something caused me to
harbor the suspicion, and I naturally supposed you would know about it.
Indeed, I wondered if some such knowledge might not account for your
very deep interest in keeping her so entirely to yourself."

Hampton's fingers twitched in a nervousness altogether unusual to the
man, yet when he spoke his voice was like steel. "Your suspicions are
highly interesting, and your cowardly insinuations base. However, if,
as I suppose, your purpose is to provoke a quarrel, you will find me
quite ready to accommodate you."

An instant they stood thus, eye to eye. Suddenly Brant's memory veered
to the girl whose name would be smirched by any blow struck between
them, and he forced back the hasty retort burning upon his lips.

"You may be, Mr. Hampton," he said, standing like a statue, his back to
the door, "but I am not. As you say, fighting is my trade, yet I have
never sought a personal quarrel. Nor is there any cause here, as my
only purpose in asking the question was to forewarn