"Well, Lord," he concluded, in his wordless way, "my girlie has gotta have a chance if I gotta go to h.e.l.l for it. That's sure as shootin'....

Amen."

At that instant he saw Quintana.

Recognition was instant and mutual. Neither man stirred. Quintana was standing beside a giant hemlock. His pack lay at his feet.

Clinch had halted--always the mechanics!--close to a great ironwood tree.

Probably both men knew that they could cover themselves before the other moved a muscle. Clinch's small, light eyes were blazing; Quintana's black eyes had become two slits.

Finally: "You--dirty--skunk," drawled Clinch in his agreeably misleading voice, "by Jesus Christ I got you now."

"Ah--h," said Quintana, "thees has happen ver' nice like I expec'....

Always I say myse'f, yet a little patience, Jose, an' one day you shall meet thees fellow Clinch, who has rob you.... I am ver' thankful to the good G.o.d----"

He had made the slightest of movements: instantly both men were behind their trees. Clinch, in the ferocious pride of woodcraft, laughed exultingly--filled the dim and spectral forest with his roar of laughter.

"Quintana," he called out, "you're a-going to cash in. Savvy? You're a-going to hop off. An' first you gotta hear why. 'Tain't for the stuff.

Naw! I hooked it off'n you; you hooked it off'n me; now I got it again.

_That's_ all square.... No, 'tain't _that_ grudge, you green-livered whelp of a cross-bred, still-born s.l.u.t! No! It's becuz you laid the heft o' your dirty little finger onto my girlie. 'N' now you gotta hop!"

Quintana's sinister laughter was his retort. Then: "You damfool Clinch,"

he said, "I got in my pocket what you rob of me. Now I kill you, and then I feel ver' well. I go home, live like some kings; yes. But you,"

he sneered, "you shall not go home never no more. No. You shall remain in thees d.a.m.n wood like ver' dead old rat that is all wormy.... He! I got a million dollaire--five million franc in my pocket. You shall learn what it cost to rob Jose Quintana! Unnerstan'?"

"You liar," said Clinch contemptuously, "I got them jools in my pants pocket----"

Quintana's derisive laugh cut him short: "I give you thee Flaming Jewel if you show me you got my gems in you pants pocket!"

"I'll show you. Lay down your rifle so's I see the stock."

"First you, my frien' Mike," said Quintana cautiously.

Clinch took his rifle by the muzzle and shoved the stock into view so that Quintana could see it without moving.

To his surprise, Quintana did the same, then coolly stepped a pace outside the shelter of his hemlock stump.

"You show me now!" he called across the swamp.

Clinch stepped into view, dug into his pocket, and, cupping both hands, displayed a glittering heap of gems.

"I wanted you should know who's gottem," he said, "before you hop. It'll give you something to think over in h.e.l.l."

Quintana's eyes had become slits again. Neither man stirred. Then:

"So you are buzzard, eh, Clinch? You feed on dead man's pockets, eh? You find Sard somewhere an' you feed." He held up the morocco case, emblazoned with the arms of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Esthonia, and shook it at Clinch.

"In there is my share.... Not all. Ver' quick, now, I take yours, too----"

Clinch vanished and so did his rifle; and Quintana's first bullet struck the moss where the stock had rested.

"You black crow!" jeered Clinch, laughing, "--I need that empty case of yours. And I'm going after it.... But it's because your filthy claw touched my girlie that you gotta hop!"

Twilight lay over the phantom wood, touching with pallid tints the flooded forest.

So far only that one shot had been fired. Both men were still manoeuvring, always creeping in circles and always lining some great tree for shelter.

Now, the gathering dusk was making them bolder and swifter; and twice, already, Clinch caught the shadow of a fading edge of something that vanished against the shadows too swiftly for a shot.

Now Quintana, keeping a tree in line, brushed with his lithe back a leafless moose-bush that stood swaying as he avoided it.

Instantly a stealthy hope seized him: he slipped out of his coat, spread it on the bush, set the naked branches swaying, and darted to his tree.

Waiting, he saw that the grey blot his coat made in the dusk was still moving a little--just vibrating a little bit in the twilight. He touched the bush with his rifle barrel, then crouched almost flat.

Suddenly the red crash of a rifle lit up Clinch's visage for a fraction of a second. And Quintana's bullet smashed Clinch between the eyes.

After a long while Quintana ventured to rise and creep forward.

Night, too, came creeping like an a.s.sa.s.sin amid the ghostly trees.

So twilight died in the stillness of Drowned Valley and the pall of night lay over all things,--living and dead alike.

EPISODE ELEVEN

THE PLACE OF PINES

I

The last sound that Mike Clinch heard on earth was the detonation of his own rifle. Probably it was an agreeable sound to him. He lay there with a pleasant expression on his ma.s.sive features. His watch had fallen out of his pocket.

Quintana shined him with an electric torch; picked up the watch. Then, holding the torch in one hand, he went through the dead man's pockets very thoroughly.

When Quintana had finished, both trays of the flat morocco case were full of jewels. And Quintana was full of wonder and suspicion.

Unquietly he looked upon the dead--upon the glittering contents of the jewel-box,--but always his gaze reverted to the dead. The faintest shadow of a smile edged Clinch's lips. Quintana's lips grew graver. He said slowly, like one who does his thinking aloud:

"What is it you have done to me, l'ami Clinch?... Are there truly then two sets of precious stones?--_two_ Flaming Jewels?--two gems of Erosite like there never has been in all thees worl' excep' only two more?...

Or is one set false?... Have I here one set of paste facsimiles?... My frien' Clinch, why do you lie there an' smile at me so ver' funny ...

like you are amuse?... I am wondering what you may have done to me, my frien' Clinch...."