"Well! I said; I'm done, hedged out; hedged in, too. The question is, Can I cut out--cut loose? It depends on Windham. The more I thought about it the more I didn't get any definition of you. I concluded to come along--see what could be done--clear up the ground--know what's to pay. If you go to Hagar with the purpose supposed, that's all right. I'm done, anyway. I have an errand of my own there--which doesn't concern you, however. I throw up my hand. I was in hell and played for keeps. I say now, a man that's won needn't bear malice. No use in that. He can call me what he chooses if it eases his mind. That won't hurt me any, nor him. He's safe. He needn't be dainty. It's a fact. I sent a tracer after you up the Shenandoah. God knows why it missed, I don't. I could have sworn there was daylight through Jack Mavering's head. Missed again. He walked in on me in Mrs. Mavering's sitting-room and made me feel like a wet hen. I put my head in my pocket and walked out. What else could I do? You're going to Hagar. All right, I'll show you where to go. What more can I do? I'm telling you all this now from policy." "And I'm calling no names," Gard remarked. "Mavering professes to have a great admiration for you as a practical practitioner. You're probably right to come along." "Oh, I figure pretty well. I was a fool--but still, that thing was figured pretty well. I'd have won out finally all right if--" "I object to what you have in mind to say--prefer to think you wouldn't 'have won out finally, if--' Better not speculate. We'll call that a stipulation." Map lifted his brows and settled himself more comfortably. A change, an expression of relief, slipped over his big, harsh-boned face, the only sign of the tension that he had been under. "Stipulations--that's what I want. If there's anything to be done to restore amiability, good God! it's surely my part to do it." Gard looked out of the window and was silent. Green meadows and brown fallows moving past, white houses under aged maples, hills of climbing pasture lands and pale-green forests. Did men carry any sullen burdens in this valley? Better drop them and go unburdened into Hagar. "I suppose there might be a sort of public duty involved," he said, "which interests me just now about to the extent of an empty medicine bottle. I flung the last one at Mrs. Mavering's black cook. You remember Sabrina? You couldn't even break glass on her. Do you think of taking up regularly with--I beg your pardon--with a criminal career?"