Mark me worruds, whin a person boasts and fergits to touch wood, something happens to thot person. I nivver knew it to fail."

"A fine baby, Frank," said Berlin, as he stood looking at the child.

"You ought to be proud of him."

"No peac.o.c.k was ever prouder," laughed Merry. "We hope to make a star of him, eh, Inza?"

"Oh, the star--the birthmark!" exclaimed Inza. "Can't you show it to Mr.

Carson without waking the baby, Maggie?"

"Oi kin try, ma'am."

The maid gently slipped the clothes from the baby's left shoulder and revealed the tiny, perfectly formed pink star.

"Wonderful! wonderful!" declared Berlin. "Why, one would think it stamped there. I never saw anything so perfect in all my life. Frank, Inza, that child is marked for something great."

"Let us hope you're right," said Merry.

That night, after retiring to his room, Carson sat a long time at the open window, gazing out through the whispering trees toward the fall moon that was rising in the east. The old feeling of sadness and disappointment stole over him and gave him a sensation of uncontrollable loneliness in the world.

"I suppose I was mistaken about Lizette," he finally muttered. "I shall be able to tell when I see her again. I hoped to see her when they took me to look at the baby. Rather strange she wasn't there. Still, I presume it's true that she had a headache."

Finally he undressed, donned his pajamas, and got into bed.

Sleep did not come readily at his command. His brain was busy with many thoughts. He recalled the old days at college, when he first met Frank Merriwell. In those happy days ere meeting Bessie he was heart-free and care-free. It seemed so long ago--so long ago. It was something like a dream. Dimly he recalled the cla.s.sroom, the campus, and the field. He saw his youthful comrades gathering about him at the old fence in the dusk of a soft spring evening. He heard their light talk and careless laughter. He heard them singing beneath the windows of the dormitories.

He heard them cheering on the field as Old Eli battled for baseball honors or struggled to win new gridiron glory.

Ah, those were happy days, Carson, my boy! They were the happiest you have ever known. You did not appreciate those glorious days as they were pa.s.sing, but you appreciate them now, and the memory is a precious one.

Can such happy days as those ever again be yours?

Then he recalled old times on the ranch. He thrilled as he remembered his first meeting with dark-eyed Bessie. How she had bewitched him! How she had puzzled and fascinated him! At the very first he had felt her fascination dangerous, yet it was so delightful that he did not mind the danger.

Thinking of Bessie, he finally fell asleep and dreamed of her. On the bed he tossed restlessly, murmuring her name. He seemed to see her near at hand, yet gliding away before him as he vainly sought to overtake her. She turned her bewitching face and smiled at him alluringly.

Desperately he strove to reach her, but always she kept just beyond his grasp. Yet she beckoned him on with her smile and with her hypnotic eyes. Finally, in mad desperation, he made one last great leap and seized her. He had her now! She was his! She could not get away! In that moment of triumph a marvelous metamorphosis took place, and as his arm bound her to his side he beheld her transformed into a boy. She was no longer Bessie, but young Tom King, reckless, taunting, derisive, and mocking.

In that mysterious way of dreams, he now beheld himself gazing down upon a dying man, who lay stretched upon the ground, a bullet having pa.s.sed through his body. He knew the man. It was Colonel King, the cattle rustler, who had carried on his criminal work disguised as Laramie Dave.

There were other men standing about--armed men. The sheriff was there with his posse. At last, through the revelation and information furnished by Frank Merriwell, this cattle stealer had been captured and shot. And now he was gasping his life away, and soon his stain-spotted soul would stand naked before the judgment bar above.

Through his dream--if dream it was--a voice sounded, cutting him to the heart. That voice cried, "You have killed him, you devils!" Then young Tom King threw himself on his father's prostrate body, weeping bitterly.

Carson attempted to lift the boy, but once more before his eyes a change took place, and Tom King became Lizette, the French nurse.

He awoke, shaking in every limb, with cold perspiration on his face.

"Did I dream," he hoa.r.s.ely muttered, "or did I live the past over again?"

There was no more sleep for him. He rose and went to the window. The cool night beckoned to him. The soft moon smiled at him. The whispering leaves said, "Come out, come out."

Carson dressed, softly descended the stairs, and left the house.

He filled his lungs and stretched his arms. The moon had mounted into the eastern sky, and there were deep shadows beneath the trees. The restless young man walked amid those shadows.

Suddenly he paused, startled by the sound of voices. Near at hand two persons were talking. One voice, hoa.r.s.e, harsh, suppressed, was that of a man. The other was a woman's voice.

"What does it mean?" thought Carson. "Who is here at this hour? I must know--I'll investigate."

Cautiously he stole forward, keeping deep within the shadows. He had not proceeded far before these words, spoken by the woman, came distinctly to his ears:

"I cannot--I will not do it!"

An instant later a shadowy figure came rustling toward him. It was the woman, and she was right upon him ere she discovered the silent man who stood there beneath the trees. With a little gasp, she turned and fled on. A patch of moonlight, shimmering through the branches, had shown him her face.

The face of Lizette!

CHAPTER XI.

THE TRUTH.

His first impulse was to follow her. Then he stopped and stood waiting for the man. The man did not come.

"Where is he? who is he?" speculated Berlin.

After a time Carson turned toward the house.

"She's in her room long ere this," he thought.

But close by the wall a shadow lingered, and, as he approached, this shadow suddenly moved forward and confronted him.

"What is it you do here?" demanded the voice of Lizette. "I know you see me. I know you hear sometheeng. Why you watch me? _Mon Dieu!_ would you hurt a poor girl?"

Carson took a firm grip on himself and was deliberate in speaking.

"Why should I wish to hurt you?" he asked. "You have done no harm, have you?"

"Oh, no, no, no! I haf done notheeng!"

"Then why do you fear?"

"You watch me. You follaire me."

"If you have done nothing wrong, you need not fear to be watched."

"But it is not honerable to play ze spy on a girl."

"I did not do so intentionally. I could not sleep, and I came out here to get the air. It was wholly by chance that I ran across you. Who was with you?"

"No one, monsieur."