that played the traitor with him, and in a little he reeled back, clutching at the table with both hands, and shaking and giddy with the uneven breaths he drew. Keeling had watched with sullen pleasure in his eyes. He had more than one grudge against Scott. And Andree had watched in unabashed delight. She always gloried to see men flung off their balance for her, and she always rejoiced to see them fight. Scott found his breath at last.
"You—mean to do it?" he gased.
Dick pulled his tunic down and settled his belt.
"I do not change my mind," Captain Scott," he said.
"I am not a soft man," said Scott slowly. "But" He lifted himself, fastening his eyes on Dick. "You speak of your duty," he said. "Your duty! A man's duty is to protect a woman, and not to hunt her down for death. I can't keep her. I can't fight the three of you. And I'll let you take her if she has to go because it will bring you worse luck than anything you've ever done in all your life. You'll never see Heaven, but maybe we'll meet in Hell and figure out the end of this. Let me speak to her."
Dick moved aside, and Scott held his hand out to Andree.
"Good-bye," he said. "I'd have saved you if you'd told me. Did you think you'd have shocked me? My girl, I love you the better for your pluck. Tell me that you never hated me, Andree."
Andree's cheeks were bright and her eyes dancing. She veiled them a moment with her long lashes, and looked up with the half-shy swiftness which had been fatal to so many before Scott's day.
"Mais non," she whispered. "I did like you. But I like Dick more better.
"You know what he is taking you for?"
Andree pulled her hand from Scott's, and slid it into Dick's.
"He is Dick," she said simply.
Scott looked keenly into the other man's face. Then he swung on his heel.
"Take her," he said. "I'd rather be Andree than yourself, and so would you. But you've got to be yourself, and I guess that's going to give you all you want before you're through."
