darter that somebody had stole away years ago, and plannin' revenge
on that somebody. And six months ago he was missed. I tracked him to
Carson, to Salt Lake City, to Omaha, to Chicago, to New York,--and
here!"

"Here!" echoed Islington.

"Here! And that's what brings me here to-day. Whethers he's crazy or
well, whethers he's huntin' you or lookin' up that other man, you must
get away from here. You mustn't see him. You and me, Tommy, will go away
on a cruise. In three or four years he'll be dead or missing, and then
we'll come back. Come." And he rose to his feet.

"Bill," said Islington, rising also, and taking the hand of his friend,
with the same quiet obstinacy that in the old days had endeared him to
Bill, "wherever he is, here or elsewhere, sane or crazy, I shall seek
and find him. Every dollar that I have shall be his, every dollar that I
have spent shall be returned to him. I am young yet, thank God, and can
work; and if there is a way out of this miserable business, I shall find
it."

"I knew," said Bill, with a surliness that ill concealed his evident
admiration of the calm figure before him--"I knew the partikler style
of d--n fool that you was, and expected no better. Good by, then--God
Almighty! who's that?"

He was on his way to the open French window, but had started back, his
face quite white and bloodless, and his eyes staring. Islington ran to
the window, and looked out. A white skirt vanished around the corner of
the veranda. When he returned, Bill had dropped into a chair.