The old man smiled grimly. "I have not been swindled."

"Then Clyde sold out!" exploded Boyd.

"Yes. I paid him back the ten thousand dollars he put in, and I took over the twenty-five thousand shares you got Mildred to take."

"Mildred!" Emerson started as if he had been struck. "Are you insane?

Mildred doesn't own--Why, Alton never told me who put up that money!"

"Don't tell me you didn't know!" cried Wayne Wayland. "You knew all the time. You worked your friends out, and then sent that whipper-snapper to my daughter when you saw you were about to fail. You managed well; you knew she couldn't refuse."

"How did you find out that she held the stock?"

"She told me, of course."

"Don't ask me to believe that. If she hadn't told you before, she wouldn't tell you now. All I can say is that she acted of her own free will. I never dreamed she put up that twenty-five thousand dollars. What do you intend to do, now that you have taken over these holdings?"

"What do you think? I would spend ten times the money to save my daughter." The old man was quivering.

"You are only a minority stockholder; the control of this enterprise still rests with me and my friends."

"Your friends!" cried Mr. Wayland. "That's what brings me here--you and your friends! I'll break you and your friends, if it takes my fortune."

"I can understand your dislike of me, but my a.s.sociates have never harmed you."

"Your a.s.sociates! And who are they? A lawless ruffian, who openly threatened Willis Marsh's murder, and a loose woman from the dance-halls."

"Take care!" cried Emerson, in a sharp voice.

The old man waved his hands as if at a loss for words. "Look here! You can't be an utter idiot. You must know who she is."

"Do you? Then tell me."

Wayne Wayland turned his back in disgust. "Do you really wish to know?"

Marsh's smooth voice questioned.

"I do."

"She is a very common sort," said Willis Marsh. "I am surprised that you never heard of her while you were in the 'upper country.' She followed the mining camps and lived as such women do. She is an expert with cards--she even dealt faro in some of the camps."

"How do you know?"

"I looked up her history in Seattle. She is very--well, notorious."

"People talk like that about nearly every woman in Alaska."

"I didn't come here to argue about that woman's character," broke in Mr.

Wayland.

"You have said enough now, so that you will either prove your words or apologize."

"If you want proof, take your own relation with her. It's notorious; even Mildred has heard of it."

"I can explain to her in a word."

"Perhaps you can also explain that affair with Hilliard. If so, you had better do it. I suppose you didn't know anything about that, either. I suppose you don't know why he advanced that loan after once refusing it.

They have a name for men like you who take money from women of her sort."

Emerson uttered a terrible cry, and his face blanched to a gray pallor.

"Do you mean to say--I sent--her--to Hilliard?"

"Hilliard as good as told me so himself. Do you wonder that I am willing to spend a fortune to protect my girl from a man like you? I'm going to break you. I've got a foothold in this enterprise of yours, and I'll root you out if it takes a million. I'll kick you back into the gutter, where you belong."

Boyd stood appalled at the violence of this outburst. The man seemed insane. He could not find words to answer him.

"You did not come down here to tell me that," he said, at last.

"No. I came here with a message from Mildred; she has told me to dismiss you once and for all."

"I shall take my dismissal from no one but her. I can explain everything."

"I expected you to say that. If you want her own words, read this." With shaking fingers, he thrust a letter before Emerson's eyes. "Read it!"

The young man opened the envelope, and read, in a hand-writing he knew only too well:

"DEAR BOYD,--The conviction has been growing on me for some time that you and I have made a serious mistake. It is not necessary to go into details --let us spare each other that unpleasantness. I am familiar with all that father will say to you, and his feelings are mine; hence there is no necessity for further explanations. Believe me, this is much the simplest way.

"MILDRED."

Boyd crushed the note in his palm and tossed it away carelessly.

"You dictate well," he said, quietly, "but I shall tell her the truth, and she will--"

"Oh no, you won't. You won't see her again. I have seen to that. Mildred is engaged to Willis Marsh. It's all settled. I warn you to keep away. Her engagement has been announced to all our friends on the yacht."

"I tell you I won't take my dismissal from any one but her. I shall come aboard _The Grande Dame_ to-night."

"Mr. Marsh and I may have something to say to that."

Boyd wheeled upon Marsh with a look that made him recoil.

"If you try to cross me, I'll strip your back and lash you till you howl like a dog."

Marsh's florid face went pale; his tongue became suddenly too dry for speech. But Wayne Wayland was not to be cowed.

"I warn you again to keep away from my daughter!" he cried, furiously.

"And I warn you that I shall come aboard the yacht to-night alone."