night sitting at cards, met him, and saw the careworn look on his face.
The half-breed smiled. He knew that the event was doubling on the man.
When Heldon reached his house, he went to his wife's room. It was
locked. Then he walked down to his mines with a miserable shame and
anger at his heart. He did not pass The Crimson Flag. He went by
another way.

That evening, in the dusk, a woman knocked at Tom Liffey's door. He
opened it.

"Are you alone?" she said. "I am alone, lady."

"I will come in," she added. "You will--come in?" he faltered.

She drew near him, and reached out and gently caught his hand.

"Ah!" he said, with a sound almost like a sob in its intensity, and the
blood flushed to his hair.

He stepped aside, and she entered. In the light of the candle her eye
burned into his, but her face wore a shining coldness. She leaned
towards him.

"You said you could worship me," she whispered, "and you cursed him.
Well--worship me--altogether--and that will curse him, as he has killed
me."

"Dear lady!" he said, in an awed, overwhelmed murmur; and he fell back
to the wall.