have died for him. On the beach, if I had had a pistol, I could have shot him down."
"In that case," said Almayne glumly, "I am sorry you had no pistol."
Lachlan arose.
"We must move quickly," he said, "for Barradell's rescue. I must see Mistress Jolie Stanwicke at once."
"If you see her, you will be more fortunate than I have been," Almayne growled.
"What do you mean?" Lachlan asked quickly.
"That I am denied access to her," the hunter answered; "that I am forbidden to speak with her. But I had best start at the beginning. I have a story to tell also."
He told it, briefly. Towards noon on Sunday he began to wonder where Lachlan was. He looked for him at his lodging, in the streets, at the house of Mr. O'Sullivan, Lachlan's former tutor, at a cabin outside the town's boundary that the two Muskogee warriors, Striking Hawk and Little Mink, occupied as a temporary lodging. Then the hunter went to the Stanwicke house. The negro servant, to whom he announced his wish to speak with Mistress Jolie Stanwicke, returned in a few minutes to say that the lady was ill and could not be seen.
He wandered about the town for some hours, his anxiety growing, returning at intervals to his lodging to see whether Lachlan had called there. The fact that early in the forenoon Falcon's brig had weighed
