Alan listened in tense silence.  So Dick Carson might be going to be so unexpectedly obliging as to die after all.  If he had known how to pray he would have done it, beseeched whatever gods there were to let the thing come to an end at last, offered any bribe within his power if they would set him free from his bondage by disposing of his cousin.

But there beside him clinging to his arm was Tony Holiday aquiver with grief for this same cousin.  He saw that there were tears on her cheeks, tears that the icy wind turned instantly to frosted silver.  And suddenly a new power was invoked—­the power of love.

“Tony, darling, don’t cry,” he beseeched.  “I—­can’t stand it.  He—­he won’t die.”

And then and there a miracle took place.  Alan Massey who had never prayed in his life was praying to some God, somewhere to save John Massey for Tony because she loved him and his dying would hurt her.  Tony must not be hurt.  Any God could see that.  It must not be permitted.

Tony put up her hand and brushed away the frosted silver drops.

“No, he isn’t going to die.  I’m not going to let him.  I’m going to Mexico to save him.”

Alan stopped short, pulling her to a halt beside him.

“Tony, you can’t,” he gasped, too astonished for a moment even to be angry.

“I can and I am going to,” she defied him.

“But my dear, I tell you, you can’t.  It would be madness.  Your uncle wouldn’t let you.  I won’t let you.”

“You can’t stop me.  Nobody can stop me.  I’m going.  Dick shan’t die alone.  He shan’t.”

“Tony, do you love him?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t want to talk about love—­your kind.  I do love him one way with all my heart.  I wish it were the way I love you.  I’d go down and marry him if I did.  Maybe I’ll marry him anyway.  I would in a minute if it would save him.”

“Tony!” Alan’s face was dead white, his green eyes savage.  “You promised to stick to me through everything.  Where is your Holiday honor that you can talk like that about marrying another man?” Maddened, he branished his words like whips, caring little whether they hurt or not.

“I can’t help it, Alan.  I am sorry if I am hurting you.  But I can’t think about anybody but Dick just now.”

“Forgive me, sweetheart.  I know you didn’t mean it, what you said about marrying him and you didn’t mean it about going to Mexico.  You know you can’t.  It is no place for a woman like you.”

“If Dick is there dying, it is the place for me.  I love you, Alan.  But there are some things that go even deeper, things that have their very roots in me, the things that belong to the Hill.  And Dick is a very big part of them, sometimes I think he is the biggest part of all.  I have to go to him.  Please don’t try to stop me.  It will only make us both unhappy if you try.”

A bitter blast struck their faces with the force of a blow.  Tony shivered.