He pressed the point with singular insistence.

"Doesn't it make your heart beat, Elizabeth, when you think that he might
fall--that he might do what I prophesied so long ago--shoot a man before
he's twenty-five?"

She shrugged the supposition calmly away.

"My faith in him is based as strongly as the rocks, Vance. But if he
fell, after the schooling I've given him, I'd throw him out of my life--
forever."

He paused a moment, studying her face with a peculiar eagerness. Then he
shrugged in turn. "Tush! Of course, that's impossible. Let's go down."



CHAPTER 4


When they reached the front porch, they saw Terence Colby coming up the
terrace from the river road on Le Sangre. And a changed horse he was. One
ear was forward as if he did not know what lay in store for him, but
would try to be on the alert. One ear flagged warily back. He went
slowly, lifting his feet with the care of a very weary horse. Yet, when
the wind fluttered a gust of whirling leaves beside him, he leaped aside
and stood with high head, staring, transformed in the instant into a
creature of fire and wire-strung nerves. The rider gave to the side-
spring with supple grace and then sent the stallion on up the hill.