t go a half-whispered "Yes!" which
seemed to reflect the conclusion gained from the power of his presence.

"Then my mother's and my own interests are with you--the interests of
peace are with you!" she declared.

She did not appear to see the sudden, uncontrolled gleam of victory in
his eyes; for now she was looking fixedly at the point where Hugo had
stood. By this time it had become a habit for Westerling to wait
silently for her to come out of her abstractions. To disturb one might
make it unproductive.

"Then if I want to help the cause of peace I should help the Grays!"

The exclamation was more to herself than to him. He was silent. This
girl in a veranda chair desiring to aid him and his five million
bayonets and four thousand guns! Quixote and the windmills--but it was
amazing; it was fine! The golden glow of the sunset was running in his
veins in a paean of personal triumph. The profile turned ever so little.
Now it was looking at the point where Dellarme had lain dying.
Westerling noted the smile playing on the lips. It had the quality of a
smile over a task completed--Dellarme's smile. She started; she was
trembling all over in the resistance of some impulse--some impulse that
gradually gained headway and at last broke its bonds.

"For I can help--I can help!" she cried out, turning to him in wild
indecision which seemed to plead for guidance. "It's so terrible--yet if
it would hasten peace--I--I know much of the Browns' plan of defence! I
know where they are strong in the first line and--and one place where
they are weak there--and a place where they are weak in the main line!"

"You do!" Westerling exploded. The plans of the enemy! The plans that
neither Bouchard's saturnine cunning, nor bribes, nor spies could
ascertain! It was like the bugle-call to the hunter. But he controlled
himself. "Yes, yes!" He was thoughtful and guarded.

"Do you think it is right to tell?" Marta gasped half inarticulately.

"Right? Yes, to hasten the inevitable--to save lives!" declared
Westerling with deliberate assurance.

"I--I want to see an end of the killing! I--" She sprang to her feet as
if about to break away tumultuously, but paused, swaying unsteadily, and
passed her hand across her eyes.

"We intend a general attack on the first line of defence to-night!" he
exclaimed, his supreme thought leaping into words.

"And you would want the information about the first line to-night if--if
it is to be of service?