All this the first assistant saw, and saw clearly, in the momentary halt made upon the street corner. Holding his watch in the light streaming from the windows of the Dargin bar-room he found that it stiff lacked a few minutes of eleven. There was a chance and he took it, walking rapidly up the street toward the place where, a few nights before, he had drawn aside to become charitably blind and deaf while David Vallory was talking to Judith Fallon. XV Plegg’s Back-Fire For good and sufficient reasons Silas Plegg did not wish to show himself in the dance-hall opposite the Murtrie Mine ore sheds. On all accounts he would have been glad to be assured that he had thus far gone unrecognized through the ill-lighted Powder Can street. Standing before the wide-open doors of this other outreaching of Dargin’s, he could pass the shuffling dancers in review. The woman he was looking for was not among them, and neither was she at the piano. Turning away with a sigh of relief he crossed the street, circled the ore sheds, and came upon the row of shack cottages belonging to the Murtrie company. Only one of the cottages showed a lighted window, and here, again, Plegg made careful reconnaissance before he knocked on the door. It was Judith Fallon who opened to him. “Oh, ’tis you, is it?” she said, when the light fell upon him. “If it’s my father you’re wanting, he’ll be over at the mine. ’Tis his week to be on the night shift.” “No, I don’t want to see your father, Judith,” he said quietly. “I came to see you. May I come in?” The black eyes snapped and their light was unfriendly. “’Tis an honor to the likes of me. The door is open.” Plegg accepted the scant welcome and went in. The interior of the cottage was plain almost to poverty. Since the young woman would not sit down he was forced to plunge bluntly into his errand. “I’ve come to you, Judith, because I am David Vallory’s friend,” he began. “Have I made a mistake?” Her attitude was still antagonistic. “You needn’t be worrying,” she snapped. “I know my place. ’Tis not I that will be running after Davie Vallory.” “You misunderstood me completely,” he hastened to say. And then: “Won’t you please sit down?” She moved toward the lighted window. “’Tis better that I don’t--and that you don’t,” she flung out; and Plegg was quick to take the hint. She was expecting some one else, and the some one would doubtless be Dargin, the man who had constituted himself her protector. “I’ll take a chance, Judith--for Vallory’s sake,” he thrust in boldly. “Won’t you do the same?” “’Tis himself would kill you if he found you here. But what is it you’ll want to be saying about Davie?” There was neither time nor opportunity for a guarded approach to his object, and Plegg plunged again.