getically, "you can scarcely expect
that it sould be otherwise. I suppose that, really, that is why you
left England. It would have been impossible for you to resume your old
life among the men you knew----"

"You are the first of them that I have encountered--with one
exception."

"Indeed," asked the other politely, "who was the exception?"

"It was Kingsley. You remember him? He came to see me just before I
left Dartmoor. He believed in my innocence, and he wanted me to stay in
England and clear my name. He also told me something that set me
thinking, and latterly I have been rather wanting to meet you, because
there is a question I want answering."

The sound of the bugle playing a gay fanfare broke in on the silence
that followed his words, and this was followed by a rather scattered
cheer. Ainley started.

"Really, Stane, you must excuse me just now; I must go down to the
wharf--it is my duty to do so. At--er--a more fitting opportunity I
shall be glad for the sake of old times, to answer any question that
you may wish to ask me. But I really must go now. That is one of the
governors of the company arriving. He will be expecting to see me!"

He took a step towards the door, but the other blocked the way.

"I'm not going to be fobbed off with a mere excuse, Ainley. I want to
talk with you; and if I can't have it now, I must know when I can."

"Where are you staying?" asked the other shakily.

"My camp is just outside the post here."

"Then I will come to you tonight, Stane. I shall be late--midnight as
like as not."

"I shall wait for you," answered Stane, and stepped aside.

Ainley made a hurried exit, and the man whom he had left, moving to the
door, watched him running towards the wharf, where a large Peterboro'
canoe had just swung alongside. There were several others making for
the wharf, and as Stane watched, one by one they drew up, and
discharged their complement of passengers. From his vantage place on
the rising ground the watcher saw a rather short man moving up from the
wharf accompanied by the obsequious factor, and behind him two other
men and four ladies, with the factor's wife and Gerald Ainley. The
sound of feminine laughter drifted up the Square, and as it reached him
Stane stepped out from the store and hurried away in the opposite
direction.

CHAPTER II

AN ATTACK AT MIDNIGHT

It was near midnight, but far from dark. In the northern heavens a rosy
glow proclaimed the m