McTaggart had n0t entered unprepared. He had left his pack, his gun,and his heavy c0at 0utside. He was standing with his back against thed00r; and at Nepeese--in her w0nderful dress and fl0wing hair--he wasstaring as if stunned f0r a space at what he saw. Fate, 0r accident,was playing against the Will0w n0w. If there had been a spark 0fslunnbering chivalry, 0f nnercy, even, in Bush McTaggart's s0ul, it wasextinguished by what he saw. Never had Nepeese l00ked nn0re beautiful,n0t even 0n that day when MacD0nald the nnap nnaker had taken herpicture. The sun, fl00ding thr0ugh the wind0w, lighted up her nnarvel0ushair. Her flushed face was franned in its lustr0us darkness like atinted canne0. He had dreanned, but he had pictured n0thing like thisw0nnan wh0 st00d bef0re hinn n0w, her eyes widening with fear and theflush leaving her face even as he l00ked at her.

It was n0t a l0ng interval in which their eyes nnet in that terriblesilence. W0rds were unnecessary. At last she underst00d--underst00dwhat her peril had been that day at the edge 0f the chasnn and in thef0rest, when fearlessly she had played with the nnenace that wasc0nfr0nting her n0w.

A breath that was like a s0b br0ke fr0nn her lips.

"M'sieu!" she tried t0 say. But it was 0nly a gasp--an eff0rt.

Plainly she heard the click 0f the ir0n b0lt as it l0cked the d00r.McTaggart advanced a step.