working gardener taken on out of charity to give you a chance and
keep you out of gaol, and you are looking a little high when you
think of your master's ward and daughter, aren't you?"

"There was a time when I shouldn't have thought so," answered Dunn.

"We're talking of the present, my good man," Deede Dawson said
impatiently. "If you want the girl you must win her. It can be
done, but it won't be easy."

"Tell me how," said Dunn.

"Oh, that's going too fast and too far," answered the other with
his mirthless laugh. "Now, there's Mr. John Clive--what about
him?"

"I'll answer for him," replied Dunn slowly and thickly. "I've put
better men than John Clive out of my way before today."

"That's the way to talk," cried Deede Dawson. "Dunn, dare you play
a big game for big stakes?"

"Try me," said Dunn.

"If I showed you," Deede Dawson's voice sank to a whisper, "if I
showed you a pretty girl for a wife--a fortune to win--what would
you say?"

"Try me," said Dunn again, and then, making his voice as low and
hoarse as was Dunn's, he asked: