Clinch got up from where he was sitting, cast one murderous glance at the prostrate forms, then followed Smith, noiselessly, over the stretch of sphagnum moss. * * * * * When they reached the house they saw Eve standing on the steps in her night-dress and bare feet, holding a lantern. "Daddy," she whimpered, "I was frightened. I didn't know where you had gone----" Clinch put his arm around her, turned his bloody face and looked at Smith. "It's _this,_" he said, "that I ain't forgetting, young fella. What you done for me you done for _her._ "I gotta live to make a lady of her. That's why," he added thickly, "I'm much obliged to you, Hal Smith. ... Get to bed, girlie----" "You're bleeding, dad?" "Aw, a twig scratched me. I been in the woods with Hal. G'wan to bed." He went to the sink and washed his face, dried it, kissed the girl, and gave her a gentle shove toward the stairs. "Hal and I is sittin' up talkin' business," he remarked, bolting the door and all the shutters. * * * * * When the girl had gone, Clinch went to a closet and brought back two Winchester rifles, two shot guns, and a box of ammunition. "Goin' to see it out with me, Hal?" "Sure," smiled Smith. "Aw' right. Have a drink?" "No." "Aw' right. Where'll you set?" "Anywhere." "Aw' right. Set over there. They may try the back porch. I'll jest set here a spell, n'then I'll kind er mosey 'round. ... Plug the first fella that tries a shutter, Hal." "You bet." Clinch came over and held out his hand. "You said a face-full that time when you says to me, `Clinch,' you says, `Eve _is_ a lady.' ... I gotta fix her up. I gotta be alive to do it. ... That's why I'm greatly obliged to yeh, Hal." He took his rifle and walked slowly toward the pantry. "You bet," he muttered, "she _is_ a lady, so help me God." * * * * * Episode Three On Star Peak * * * * * I Mike Clinch regarded the jewels taken from Jose Quintana as legitimate loot acquired in war. He was prepared to kill anybody who attempted to take the gems from him. At the very possibility his ruling passion blazed -- his mania to make of Eve Strayer a grand lady. But now, what he had feared for years had happened. Quintana had found him, -- Quintana, after all these years, had discovered the identity and dwelling place of the obscure American soldier who had robbed him in the wash-room of a Paris cafe. And Quintana was now in America, here in this very wilderness, tracking the man who had despoiled him. * * * * * Clinch, in his shirt-sleeves, carrying a rifle, came out on the log veranda and sat down to think it over. He began to realise that he was likely to have trouble with a man as cold-blooded and as dogged as himself. Nor did he doubt that those with Quintana were desperate men.