“No,” she said at last, “Ruth stayed.”

“Talk about that afterward, Ronicky,” pleaded Bill Gregg.  “I got about a million things to say to Caroline.”

“I’m going to talk now,” said Ronicky gravely.  “They’s something queer about the way Caroline said that.  Will you let me ask you a few more questions?”

“Won’t you wait?” asked Caroline, in an agony of remorse and shame.  “Won’t you wait till the morning?”

Ronicky Doone walked up and down the room for a moment.  He had no wish to break in upon the long delayed happiness of these two.  While he paced he heard Bill Gregg saying that they must start at once and put three thousand miles between them and that devil, John Mark; and he heard Caroline say that there was no longer anything to fear—­the claws of the devil had been trimmed, and he would not reach after them—­he had promised.  At that Ronicky whirled sharply on them again.

“What made Mark change his mind about you?” he asked.  “He isn’t the sort to change his mind without a pretty good reason.  What bought him off?  Nothing but a price would change him, I guess.”

And she had to admit:  “It was Ruth.”

“She paid the price?” he asked harshly.  “How, Caroline?”

“She promised to marry him, Ronicky.”

The bitter truth was coming now, and she cringed as she spoke it.  The tall body of Ronicky Doone was trembling with excitement.

“She made that promise so that you could go free, Caroline?”

“No, no!” exclaimed Bill Gregg.

“It’s true,” said the girl.  “We were about to leave together when John Mark stopped us.”

“Ruth was coming with you?” asked Ronicky.

“Yes.”

“And when Mark stopped you she offered herself in exchange for your freedom?”

“Y-yes!”

Both she and Bill Gregg looked apprehensively at the dark face of Ronicky Doone, where a storm was gathering.

But he restrained his anger with a mighty effort.  “She was going to cut away from that life and start over—­is that straight, Caroline?”

“Yes.”

“Get the police, Ronicky,” said Bill Gregg.  “They sure can’t hold no woman agin’ her will in this country.”

“Don’t you see that it is her will?” asked Ronicky Doone darkly.  “Ain’t she made a bargain?  Don’t you think she’s ready and willing to live up to it?  She sure is, son, and she’ll go the limit to do what she’s said she’ll do.  You stay here—­I’ll go out and tackle the job.”

“Then I go, too,” said Bill Gregg stoutly.  “You been through enough for me.  Here’s where I go as far as you go.  I’m ready when you’re ready, Ronicky.”

It was so just an offer that even Caroline dared not cry out against it, but she sat with her hands clasped close together, her eyes begging Ronicky to let the offer go.  Ronicky Doone nodded slowly.

“I hoped you’d say that, Bill,” he said.  “But I’ll tell you what:  you stay here for a while, and I’ll trot down and take a look around and try to figure out what’s to be done.  Can’t just walk up and rap at the front door of the house, you know.  And I can’t go in the way I went before.  No doubt about that.  I got to step light.  So let me go out and look around, will you, Bill?  Then I’ll come back and tell you what I’ve decided.”