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That last hint of desperate fame was the crafty bandit's best trump

And it won Cleve swept up a weak and nervous hand to brush the hair

from his damp brow The keenness, the fire, the aloofness had

departed fro that had been

pointed out as his oardice

"Sure, Kells," he said, recklessly "Let ameAnd--by

God--I'll play--the hand out!" He reached for the pencil and bent

over the book

"Wait!Oh, WAIT!" cried Joan The passion of that moment, the

consciousness of its fateful portent and her situation, as desperate

as Cleve's, gave her voice a singularly high and piercingly sweet

intensity She glided frolare of the lanterns--to face Kells and Cleve

Kells gave one astounded glance at her, and then, divining her

purpose, he laughed thrillingly and ht of

her was a spur, as if her courage was a thing to adret

"Cleve, my wife, Dandy Dale," he said, suave and cool "Let her

persuade you--one way or another!"

The presence of a woular