t, with a pistol in your
hand. You would have killed me if I had not turned."

Genuine surprise shot into Jean's face.

"I have not been near your window, M'sieur. Until I returned with
M'sieur Adare I was waiting up the river, several miles from here.
Since then I have not left the house. Josephine and her father can tell
you this, if you need proof."

"Your words are impossible!" exclaimed Philip. "I could not have been
mistaken. It was you."

"Will you believe Josephine, M'sieur? She will tell you that I could
not have been at the window."

"If it was not you--who was it?"

"It must have been the man who shot at you," replied Jean.

"And you know who that man is, and yet refuse to tell me in order that
he may have another opportunity of finishing what he failed to do
to-night. The most I can do is to inform John Adare."

"You will not do that," said Jean confidently. Again he showed
excitement. "Do you know what it would mean?" he demanded.

"Trouble for you," volunteered Philip,

"And ruin for Josephine and every soul in the House of Adare!" added
Croisset swiftly. "As soon as Adare could lace his moccasins he would
take up that trail out there. He would come to the end of it, and
then--mon Dieu!--in that hour the world would smash about his ears!"

"Either you are mad or I am," gasped Philip, staring into the
half-breed's tense face. "I don't think you are lying, Jean. But you
must be mad. And I am mad for listening to you. You insist on giving
this murderer another chance. You as much as say that by giving him a
second opportunity to kill John Adare you are proving your loyalty to
Josephine and her father. Can that be anything but madness?"

An almost gentle smile nickered over Jean's lips. He looked at Philip
as if marvelling that the other could not understand.

"Within an hour it will be Jean Jacques Croisset who will take up the
trail," he replied softly, and without boastfulness. "It is I, and not
the master of Adare House, who will come to the end of that trail. And
there will be no other shot after that, and no one will ever know--but
you and me."

"You mean that you will follow and kill him--and that John Adare must
never know that an attempt has been made on his life?"

"He must never know, M'sieur. And what happens in the forest at the end
of the trail the trees will never tell."

"And the reason for this secrecy you will not confide in me?"

"I dare not, M'sieur."

Philip leaned a