s
that he cared nothing for her friend. Indeed, his desperate flirtation
with Joyce indicated as much. Moreover, Moya would not marry a man whom
she could not respect, one who made his living by dishonest practices.
But in spite of all these objections Miss Kilmeny told her cousin how
Moya had fought for his life against ridicule and unbelief, regardless
of what any of them might think of her.

He made one comment when she had finished. "So I have to thank Moya
Dwight for my life."

"Moya alone. They laughed at her, but she wouldn't give up. I never saw
anybody so stubborn. There's something splendid in her. She didn't care
what any of us thought. The one thing in her mind was that she was going
to save you. So Mr. Bleyer had to get up from dinner and find out from
the maps where that pipe went. He traced it to the old west shaft of the
Golden Nugget."

"And what _did_ you think?" he asked, watching her steadily.

"I admired her pluck tremendously."

"Did Verinder--and Bleyer--and Lady Farquhar?"

"How do I know what they thought?" flamed the girl. "If Mr. Verinder is
cad enough----" She stopped, recalling certain obligations she was under
to that gentleman.

"Why did she do it?"

She flashed a look of feminine scorn at him. "You'll have to ask Moya
that--if you want to know."

He nodded his head slowly. "That's just what I'm going to do."

"You'll have more time to talk with her--now that Joyce is engaged and
daren't flirt with you," his cousin suggested maliciously.

Though he tried to carry this off with a laugh, the color mounted to his
face. "I've been several kinds of an idiot in my time."

"Don't you dare try any nonsense with Moya," her friend cried, a little
fiercely.

"No," he agreed.

"She's not Joyce."

He had an answer for that. "I'd marry her to-morrow if she'd take me."

"You mean you...?"

"Yes. From the first day I met her again. And I didn't know it till I
was down in that hell hole. Shall I tell you something?" He put his arms
on the table and leaned toward her with shining eyes. "She was with me
down there most of the time. Any time I stopped to listen I could hear
her whisper courage in that low, sweet voice of hers."

"You know about her and Ned?"

"Yes."

"He's a better man than you are, Jack."

"Yes."

"But you won't let him have her."

"No, by God, not unless she loves him."

"She would have loved him if it hadn't been for you."

"You mean she loves me?"

"Sh