Burr, it was inevitable that he should be made the
butt of their coarse gibes and foul witticisms; and when these could
not penetrate his calm, superior self-possession, it was just as
inevitable that taunts should extend even to worse indignities.

Burr was not the man to be stirred against his calm judgment; but one
day his passionate nature broke loose, and he and the offender came to
blows.

There were a dozen prisoners in the single ill-lighted, log-bound
room, and almost to a man they attacked him. The fight would not have
lasted long had not the inequality appealed to Ellis on the second.

Moreover, with him, the incident was to the moment opportune. If ever
a man was in the mood for war, it was the big, square-jawed pioneer.
He was reckless and desperate for the first time in his life, and he
joined with Burr against the room, with the abandon of a madman.

For minutes they fought. Elbows and knees, fists and feet, teeth and
tough-skulled heads; every hard spot and every sharp angle bored and
jabbed at the crushing mass which swiftly closed them in. They
struggled like cats against numbers, and held the wall until the sound
of battle brought the negligent guard running, and the muzzle of a
carbine peeped through the grating. Burr and Ellis came out with
scarce a rag and with many bruises, but with the new-born lust of
battle hot within them. Ellis glowered at the enemy, and having of the
two the more breath, fired the parting shot.

"How I'd like to take you fellows out, one at a time," he said.

From that day the two men were kept apart from the others, and the
friendship grew. When Burr chose, neither man nor woman could resist
him. He chose now and Ellis, by habit and by nature silent, told of
his life and of his thoughts. It was a new tale to Burr, these dream
products of a strong man, and of solitude; and so, listening, he
forgot his own trouble. The hard look that had formed over his face in
the three years past vanished, leaving him again the natural,
fascinating man who had first taken the drawing-room of the rare old
Jumel mansion by storm. It was genuine, this tale that Ellis told; it
was strong, with the savor of Mother Nature and of wild things, and
fascinating with the beauty of unconscious telling.

"And the girl?" asked Burr after Ellis finished a passionate account
of the last year. Unintentionally, he touched flame to tinder.

"Don't ask me about her. I'm not fit. She was coming to see m