fright of a man who is startled. Guilt--that was
it--guilt and fear!

"What's come over you, Jack?" she cried. "Why were you so scared of me?
Oh, Jack, if your conscience was at ease, you would not have looked at
me like that!"

"Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came tripping so
lightly on those fairy feet of yours--"

"No, no, it was more than that, Jack." Then a sudden suspicion seized
her. "Let me see that letter you were writing."

"Ah, Ettie, I couldn't do that."

Her suspicions became certainties. "It's to another woman," she cried.
"I know it! Why else should you hold it from me? Was it to your wife
that you were writing? How am I to know that you are not a married
man--you, a stranger, that nobody knows?"

"I am not married, Ettie. See now, I swear it! You're the only one woman
on earth to me. By the cross of Christ I swear it!"

He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could not but
believe him.

"Well, then," she cried, "why will you not show me the letter?"

"I'll tell you, acushla," said he. "I'm under oath not to show it, and
just as I wouldn't break my word to you so I would keep it to those who
hold my promise. It's the business of the lodge, and even to you it's
secret. And if I was scared when a hand fell on me, can't you understand
it when it might have been the hand of a detective?"

She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered her into his arms
and kissed away her fears and doubts.

"Sit here by me, then. It's a queer throne for such a queen; but it's
the best your poor lover can find. He'll do better for you some of these
days, I'm thinking. Now your mind is easy once again, is it not?"

"How can it ever be at ease, Jack, when I know that you are a criminal
among criminals, when I never know the day that I may hear you are in
court for murder? 'McMurdo the Scowrer,' that's what one of our boarders
called you yesterday. It went through my heart like a knife."

"Sure, hard words break no bones."

"But they were true."

"Well, dear, it's not so bad as you think. We are but poor men that are
trying in our own way to get our rights."

Ettie threw her arms round her lover's neck. "Give it up, Jack! For my
sake, for God's sake, give it up! It was to ask you that I came here
to-day. Oh, Jack, see--I beg it of you on my bended knees! Kneeling here
before you I implore you to give it up!"

He raised her and soothed her with her head against his breast