y.

"Were you alone?"

"Do you think I could have lifted her wet body from the water myself?
No, I had help. But never mind that now. You go to Jean and make love
to no one else."

The strain through which he had just passed was telling severely upon
Ben. He mopped his face and forehead with his handkerchief. His sense
of fear was passing and anger was taking its place. It annoyed him to
think that he should be thus cornered and affected by Jake Jukes' hired
man. Then his opponent's closing words roused the fire in his soul,
and he turned angrily upon him.

"Ah, I see through your little game now," he cried. "You are jealous
of me."

"Jealous of you! In what way?"

"You want Nell Strong, that's it. Ah, I understand it all. You want
to take her away from me, don't you? I suppose you have told her this
yarn about me, and that accounts for something that took place last
night. You devil incarnate! I'll get even with you for what you have
done!"

"If I were you I would be too ashamed to say anything more," Douglas
calmly replied. "I have not told Miss Strong about your cowardly deed,
though I think she should know of it. It would be an act of mercy if a
word might save her from such a brute as you."

So intent were the two men upon what they were saying, that they did
not notice Nell coming toward them down the road. She was only a few
yards away as Douglas finished speaking. She heard the heated words,
but could not understand their meaning. She was hoping that she might
pass as quickly as possible, as she did not wish to have anything to
say to Ben.

Douglas, standing facing the road, was the first to see her, and he at
once lifted his hat. He thought she never looked so beautiful, clad as
she was in a simple dress, and a plain sailor-hat on her head. She
seemed like an angel of mercy sent to bring peace to their strife.

Ben, however, had no such thoughts. When he turned and saw who was
approaching, he at once recalled the previous evening, and what Nell
had said to him. He was glad, too, of any excuse to get away from his
opponent who had given him such a galling time. And this was an
opportunity, as well, to embarrass the woman who had repelled him.
These thoughts flashed through his mind in the twinkling of an eye.

"Hello, Nell," he accosted. "Going down the road? Better get in and
have a drive. I'm going that way myself."

"I prefer to walk, thank you," Nell quietly replied.