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“Did you want to see me?” she asked.

She scarcely knew why she said it; but she was sensible of trouble, maybe of tragedy, somewhere; and she had a vague dread of she knew not what, for, hide it, avoid it, as she had done so often, there was in her heart an unhappy doubt concerning her father.

A great change had come over Lygon. Her presence had altered him. He was again where she had left him in the afternoon.

He heard her say to her father: “This was the man I told you of–at the reedy lake. Did you come to see me?” she repeated.

“I did not know you were here,” he answered. “I came”–he was conscious of Henderley’s staring eyes fixed upon his helplessly–“I came to ask your father if he would not buy my shack. There is good shooting at the lake; the ducks come plenty, sometimes. I want to get away, to start again somewhere. I’ve been a failure. I want to get away, right away south. If he would buy it, I could start again. I’ve had no luck.”

He had invented it on the moment, but the girl understood better than Lygon or Henderley could have dreamed. She had seen the change pass over Lygon.

Henderley had a hand on himself again, and the startled look went out of his eyes.

“What do you want for your shack and the lake?” he asked, with restored confidence. The fellow no doubt was grateful that his daughter had saved his life, he thought.

“Five hundred dollars,” answered Lygon, quickly.

Henderley would have handed over all that lay on the table before him, but he thought it better not to do so. “I’ll buy it,” he said. “You seem to have been hit hard. Here is the money. Bring me the deed to-morrow–to-morrow.”

“I’ll not take the money till I give you the deed,” said Lygon. “It will do to-morrow. It’s doing me a good turn. I’ll get away and start again somewhere. I’ve done no good up here. Thank you, sir–thank you.”

Before they realized it, the tent-curtain rose and fell, and he was gone into the night.

The trouble was still deep in the girl’s eyes as she kissed her father, and he, with an overdone cheerfulness, wished her a good-night.

The man of iron had been changed into a man of straw once at least in his lifetime.

* * * * *

Lygon found Dupont at the Forks.

“Eh, ben, it is all right–yes?” Dupont asked, eagerly, as Lygon joined him.

“Yes, it is all right,” answered Lygon.

With an exulting laugh and an obscene oath, Dupont pushed out the canoe, and they got away into the moonlight. No word was spoken for some distance, but Dupont kept giving grunts of satisfaction.

“You got the ten t’ousan’ each–in cash or check, eh? The check or the money–hein?“

“I’ve got nothing,” answered Lygon.

Dupont dropped his paddle with a curse.

“You got not’ing! You said eet was all right!” he growled.

“It is all right. I got nothing. I asked for nothing. I have had enough. I have finished.”

With a roar of rage Dupont sprang on him, and caught him by the throat as the canoe swayed and dipped. He was blind with fury.

Lygon tried with one hand for his knife, and got it, but the pressure on his throat was growing terrible.

For minutes the struggle continued, for Lygon was fighting with the desperation of one who makes his last awful onset against fate and doom.

Dupont also had his knife at work. At last it drank blood, but as he got it home he suddenly reeled blindly, lost his balance, and lurched into the water with a groan.

Lygon, weapon in hand and bleeding freely, waited for him to rise and make for the canoe again.

Ten, twenty, fifty seconds passed. Dupont did not rise. A minute went by, and still there was no stir, no sign. Dupont would never rise again. In his wild rage he had burst a blood-vessel on the brain.