Part 105

Stormont flung open the bullet-splintered door. Outside in the snow he dropped on both knees to buckle on Eve's snow-shoes.

Darragh was performing a like office for his wife, and the State Trooper, being unobserved, took Eve's slim hands and kissed them, looking up at her where he was kneeling.

Her pale face blushed as it had that day in the woods on Owl Marsh, so long, so long ago, when this man's lips first touched her hands.

As their eyes met both remembered. Then she smiled at her lover with the shy girl's soul of her gazing out at him through eyes as blue as the wild blind-gentians that grow among the ferns and mosses of Star Pond.

* * * * *

Far away in the northwestern forests Quintana still lashed his horses through the primeval pines.

Triumphant, reckless, resourceful, dangerous, he felt that now nothing could stop him, nothing bar his way to freedom.

Out of the wilderness lay his road and his destiny; out of it he must win his way, by strategy, by cunning, by violence--creep out, lie his way out, shoot his way out--it scarcely mattered. He was going out! He was going back to life once more. Who could forbid him? Who stop him? Who deny him, now, when, in his pockets, he held all that was worth living for--the keys to power, to pleasure,--the key to everything on earth!

In fierce exultation he slapped the glass jewels in his pocket and laughed aloud.

"The keys to the world!" he cried. "Let him stop me and take them who is a better man than I!" Then his long whip whistled and he cursed his horses.

Then, of a sudden, close by in the snowy road ahead, he saw a State Trooper on snow-shoes,--saw the upflung arm warning him--screamed curses at his horses, flogged them forward to crush this thing to death that dared menace him--this object that suddenly rose up out of nowhere to snatch from him the keys of the world----

* * * * *

For a moment the State Trooper looked after the runaway horses. There was no use following; they'd have to run till they dropped.

Then he lowered the levelled rifle from his shoulder, looked grimly at the limp thing which had tumbled from the sledge into the snowy road and which sprawled there crimsoning the spotless flakes that fell upon it.

THE END

Novels by ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

THE FLAMING JEWEL THE TREE OF HEAVEN THE LITTLE RED FOOT THE MOONLIT WAY THE SLAYER OF SOULS IN SECRET THE CRIMSON TIDE CARDIGAN THE LAUGHING GIRL THE RECKONING THE RESTLESS SEX THE MAID-AT-ARMS BARBARIANS AILSA PAIGE THE DARK STAR SPECIAL MESSENGER THE GIRL PHILIPPA THE HAUNTS OF MEN WHO GOES THERE! LORRAINE ATHALIE MAIDS OF PARADISE THE BUSINESS OF LIFE ASHES OF EMPIRE THE GAY REBELLION THE RED REPUBLIC THE STREETS OF ASCALON BLUE-BIRD WEATHER THE COMMON LAW A YOUNG MAN IN A HURRY THE FIGHTING CHANCE THE GREEN MOUSE THE YOUNGER SET IOLE THE DANGER MARK THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE THE FIRING LINE THE CAMBRIC MASK JAPONETTE THE MAKER OF MOONS QUICK ACTION THE KING IN YELLOW THE ADVENTURES OF A MODEST MAN IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN ANNE'S BRIDGE THE TRACER OF LOST PERSONS BETWEEN FRIENDS THE CONSPIRATORS THE BETTER MAN A KING AND A FEW DUKES POLICE!!! THE HIDDEN CHILDREN SOME LADIES IN HASTE IN THE QUARTER OUTSIDERS

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's Note: | | | |[=a] is a macron | | | |Page 14 "Stormond nodded" changed to "Stormont nodded" | | 40 Double close quotation mark added after "have a dance!" | | 95 "seated hmiself" changed to "seated himself" | | 96 "pallour" changed to "pallor" | | 103 Open bracket removed from "Ah, bah! (But wait!" | | 112 Double close quotation mark added after "that way, Mike."| | 118 Double close quotation mark added after "at roll call." | | 197 "swiming" changed to "swimming" | | 226 "her breeches pocket" changed to "her breeches' pocket | | 258 Double open quotation mark added to "But we ought to" | | | |All other inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation and dialect | |have been retained as they appear in the original book. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+