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The dead men were buried as quickly and decently as the place allowed of Things were generally cleaned up, and by noon the little fort was as spick as if the sound of a rifle had never been heard within its walls Lewis and Andover had the e of the plateau to a valley in the hills It had been arranged and furnished by a former commandant who found in the view a repetition of the one in a ly it was cos Outside a dripping mist had clouded the hills and chilled the hot air

The twowith the regularity of clockwork Leas thinking hard, thinking of the bitterness of dashed hopes, of self-confidence clutched at and lost He saw as if in an inspiration the trend of Marker's plans He had been given a paltry fictitious errand, like a bone to a dog, to quiet hiot out of the road For a second the thought pleased hiht that at least one man held him worthy of attention, and went out of his way to circuone in a uile at the back of it It ht be all foolish honesty, and to a ht of such a pedestrian failure was trebly intolerable

But honesty was inconceivable He and he alone in all the frontier country knew Marker and his ways To Andover, sucking his pipe disht Marker, the best iven a friendly hint It was not his bla had fizzled out like damp powder But to Lewis, Marker was a ence beyond others, the iron will of the true adventurer There must be devilry behind it all, and to the eye of suspicion there was doubt in every detail And meantime he had fallen an easy victiht be turned topsy-turvy at Bardur, and he not a word the wiser Things were slipping froain He had an intense desire to shut his eyes and let all drift He had done enough He had coainst him, and he must succumb The fatal wisdom of proverbs was all on his side