, "it's
not McTurpin's scheme to--"

"No, no," he assured her hastily. "I'm sure of that." He seized his hat
and coat. "Put down the window shades and answer no one's knock till I
return." He kissed her and without more ado joined the men outside. He
heard the door shut and lock click into place.

For a time the quartette strode along in silence; then Brown spoke, as
if the thought had been long on his lips, "Wasn't that--the girl
McTurpin brought to town?"

"Yes," said Adrian tersely, "it was she."

Brown made no immediate response; he seemed to be digesting Adrian's
remark. Finally he burst out, "If it's any of my business, what's she
doing--there?"

"She asked for help," retorted Stanley. He related the incident of the
veranda. Spear laughed meaningly. "That's the second one you've taken
from McTurpin; he'll be loving you a heap, old man."

"He doesn't know it yet," Brown said. "But keep out of his way
tomorrow."

Stanley's teeth met with a little click. "When I've seen Benito, Alec
McTurpin and I will have a showdown. But tell me of the boy. What
brought him here?"

"The missing girl, of course," said Dr. James. "He's daft about her.
Alice Burthen ... that's her name, isn't it?"

Stanley was about to make some rejoinder when they passed two men, one
of whom looked at them curiously. He was McTurpin's companion of the
bar-room episode. "Who's that?" asked Spear as Brown saluted the pair.

"That's Reverend Wheeler, the new Baptist parson."

"Yes, yes, I know. But the other one?"

"Ned Gasket ... he's a friend of Dandy Carter's at the Eldorado."

"And a Sydney Duck, I guess," the doctor added.

"Do your own guessing, friend," said Brown, impatiently.

Spear sighed. "We'll have to do more than guess about that stripe of
citizen if we want law and order. It will take a rope I fear," he
finished grimly.

Brown led them round the back to a room not far from the one which had
held Alice Burthen.

"It's quieter here," he explained. "They get noisy sometimes along about
midnight." He opened the door and struck a sulphur match by whose weird
flicker they made out a bed with a tossing figure upon it. Adrian
crossed over and took the nervous clutching hands within his own
firm clasp.

"Benito," he said. "Don't you know me? It's Adrian!"

Brown with a lighted lamp came nearer, so that Stanley saw the
sufferer's eyes. They were incognizant of realities. The murmuring voice
droned on, fretfully, "I've look