In a moment all Kate's lightness vanished. She stared at him for some wide-eyed moments. Then, again, all in a moment, she began to laugh.

"Done!" she cried. "I accept, and you accept! It's a wager!"

But her ready acceptance of his offer for the first time made the police officer doubt his own convictions as to the ident.i.ty of the head of the gang.

"You are accepting my condition because you believe Bryant is not the man, and so you hope to escape marrying me," he said almost roughly.

"I accept your condition," cried Kate staunchly.

Slowly a deep flush mounted to the man's cheeks and spread over his brow. His eyes lit, and his strong mouth set firmly.

"But you will marry me," he cried, with sudden force. "Whatever lies behind your condition, Kate, you'll marry me, as a result of this. The conditions are agreed. I take your wager. I shall get the man Bryant, and he'll get no mercy from me. He's stood in my way long enough. I'm going to win out, Kate," he cried; "I know it, I feel it. Because I want you. I'd go through h.e.l.l itself to do that. Quick. Tell me. Show me how I can get these people, and I promise you they shan't escape me this time."

But Kate displayed no haste. Now that the wager was made she seemed less delighted. After a moment's thought, however, she gave him the information he required.

"I've learned definitely that on Monday next, that's nearly a week to-day, there's a cargo coming in along the river trail, from the east. The gang will set out to meet it at midnight, and will bring it into the village about two o'clock in the morning. How, I can't say."

Fyles's desperate eyes seemed literally to bore their way through her.

"That's--the truth?"

"True as--death."

CHAPTER XXIX

BILL'S FRESH BLUNDERING

The change in the man that rode away from Kate Seton's home as compared with the man who had arrived there less than an hour earlier was so remarkable as to be almost absurd in a man of Stanley Fyles's reputation for stern discipline and uncompromising methods. There was an almost boyish light of excited antic.i.p.ation and hope in the usually cold eyes that looked out down the valley as he rode away. There was no doubt, no question. His look suggested the confidence of the victor. And so Charlie Bryant read it as he pa.s.sed him on the trail.

Charlie was in a discontented mood. He had seen Fyles approach Kate's home from his eyrie on the valley slope, and that hopeless impulse belonging to a weakly nature, that self-pitying desire to further lacerate his own feelings, had sent him seeking to intercept the man whom he felt in his inmost heart was his successful rival for all that which he most desired on earth.

So he walked past Fyles, who was on the back of his faithful Peter, and hungrily read the expression of his face, that he might further a.s.sure himself of the truth of his convictions.

The men pa.s.sed each other without the exchange of a word. Fyles eyed the slight figure with contempt and dislike. Nor could he help such feelings for one whom he knew possessed so much of Kate's warmest sympathy and liking. Besides, was he not a man whose doings placed him against the law, in the administration of which it was his duty to share?

Charlie's eyes were full of an undisguised hatred. His interpretation of the officer's expression left him no room for doubting. Delight, victory, were hall-marked all over it. And victory for Fyles could only mean defeat for him.

He pa.s.sed on. His way took him along the main village trail, and, presently, he encountered two people whom he would willingly have avoided. Helen and his brother were returning toward the house across the river.

Helen's quick eyes saw him at once, and she pointed him out to the big man at her side.

"It's Charlie," she cried, "let's hurry, or he'll give us the slip. I must tell him."

"Tell him what?"

But Helen deigned no answer. She hurried on, and called to the dejected figure, which, to her imagination, seemed to shuffle rather than walk along the trail.

Charlie Bryant had no alternative. He came up. He felt a desperate desire to curse their evident happiness in each other's society. Why should these two know nothing but the joys of life, while he--he was forbidden even a shadow of the happiness for which he yearned?

But Helen gave him little enough chance to further castigate himself with self-pity. She was full of her desire to impart her news, and her desire promptly set her tongue rattling out her story.

"Oh, Charlie," she cried, "I've had such a shock. Say, did you ever have a cyclone strike you when--when there wasn't a cyclone within a hundred miles of you?" Then she laughed. "That surely don't sound right, does it? It's--it's kind of mixed metaphor. Anyway, you know what I mean. I had that to-day. Bill's nearly killed one of our boys--Pete Clancy. Say, I once saw a dog fight. It was a terrier, and one of those heavy, slow British bulldogs. Well, I guess when he starts the bully is greased lightning. Bill's that bully. That's all.

Pete tried to kiss me. He was drunk. They're always drunk when they get gay like that. Bill guessed he wasn't going to succeed, and now I sort of fancy he's sitting back there by our barn trying to sort out his face. My, Bill nearly killed him!"

But the girl's dancing-eyed enjoyment found no reflection in Bill's brother. In a moment Charlie's whole manner underwent a change, and his dark eyes stared incredulously up into Bill's face, which, surely enough, still bore the marks of his encounter.

"You--thrashed Pete?" he inquired slowly, in the manner of a man painfully digesting unpleasant facts.

But Bill was in no mood to accept any sort of chiding on the point.

"I wish I'd--killed him," he retorted fiercely.

Charlie's eyes turned slowly from the contemplation of his brother's war-scarred features.

"I guess he deserved it--all right," he said thoughtfully.

Helen protested indignantly.

"Deserved it? My word, he deserved--anything," she cried. Then her indignation merged again into her usual laughter. "Say," she went on.

"I--I don't believe you're a bit glad, a bit thankful to Bill. I--I don't believe you mind that--that I was insulted. Oh, but if you'd only seen it you'd have been proud of Big Brother Bill. He--he was just greased lightning. I don't think I'd be scared of anything with him around."

But her praise was too much for the modest Bill. He flushed as he clumsily endeavored to change the subject.

"Where are you going, Charlie?" he inquired. "We're going on over the river. Kate's there. You coming?"

Just for a moment a look of hesitation crept into his brother's eyes.

He glanced across the river as though he were yearning to accept the invitation. But, a moment later, his eyes came back to his brother with a look of almost cold decision.

"I'm afraid I can't," he said. Then he added, "I've got something to see to--in the village."

Bill made no attempt to question him further, and Helen had no desire to. She felt that she had somehow blundered, and her busy mind was speculating as to how.

They parted. And as Charlie moved on he called back to Bill.

"I'll be back soon. Will you be home?"

"I can be. In an hour?"

Charlie nodded and went on.

The moment they were out of earshot Helen turned to her lover.

"Say, Bill," she exclaimed. "What have I done wrong?"

The laughter had gone out of her eyes and left them full of anxiety.