"You've got more to give than what you know Jude, my boy. What you doing here, anyway?" "You see what I'm doing. Here, take this hunk of bread, and come nearer so I can flip the bacon on." The sight and smell made Billy's mouth water, even while something in him foretold danger. "Now, see here, Jude." Jared spoke through a full mouth. "You and me can't afford to work at cross purposes. Where we failed once, we are going to succeed next time." "You darsn't show your face down there beyond the woods again, and you know it." Jude spoke doggedly. "They was after us both. Besides I can't stand transplanting. It would be the death of me. It nearly was." "Don't be white-livered, Jude. You see the laws have changed more than any one could have thought, while I was browsing away in St. Ange. That's where I made my mistake. I ought to have taken time and got the lay of the land 'fore I beckoned to you; but it looked safe enough, and I had to take, or leave the Joint, sudden. How could any man know it was spotted, and so had to be got rid of? It was one on us and no mistake. "Fill up my cup, Jude, you're a tasty one with cooking." Jude obeyed and muttered as he did so: "Luck or no luck, I ain't got nothing, nor ever will have again, so that's an end of it." "Jude, where you going to?" "Where be you?" Up aloft Billy waited. "I'm going to St. Ange." There was defiance in Jude's tone--defiance and a sort of shame; Jude had again lost his grip. "I've just come from there," said Jared. And now Billy could see through his peephole that Jude started into life. "You been there?" Jared gurgled assent. "How is--she?" "That's it, Jude. Now let's get down to business. Having to hide somewhere after that little unpleasantness down State, I ran up to St. Ange. Knowing the way about, it was a better place than some others, and I could keep from sight and find things out. I stopped at Laval's haunted shack." Billy shivered. "I kept clear of my place." "Guess you wasn't disturbed none at Laval's," sneered Jude and he gave an unpleasant laugh. "'Twas blasted cold, and I had the devil's time getting enough at night to keep me going by day; but I learned a heap, and I struck your gold mine all right, sonny." "What you mean? Spit it out." Billy crouched closer, and his breath came thick and fast. "He's--left her!" "Gaston?" An ugly oath escaped Jude. "Gaston. But not for what you think. Jude, he's after you." Jared paused for effect. "After me?" The ugliness gave place to a dull fear. "You, my son. He wants you to free Joyce." Evidently this announcement failed to reach Jude's intelligence. "Free her? Me? What's got you, old man? Didn't she cut, herself?" "You don't catch on, Jude. He wants to do the big, white thing by the girl--marry her out of hand clean and particular, and he wants to get your word that you won't make any trouble." A silence followed this. Jude was struggling to digest it; but the result was simple.