There was no niceness of feeling about this mountain of obesity in matters of business.  He spoke as callously of the girl, for whom he entertained his unholy passion, as he would speak of a stranger.  He experienced no compunction in linking her name with that of an outlaw.  His gross nature was of too low an order to hold anything sacred where his money-bags were affected.

“Perhaps you—­er—­do not know,” he pursued, carefully lighting his pipe and pressing the charred tobacco down with the tip of his little finger, “that this girl is the daughter of a Breed mother?”

“Guess I hadn’t a notion.”

Horrocks’s keen eyes flashed with interest.  He too lit his pipe as he lounged back in his chair.

“She is a quarter-breed, and, moreover, the esteem in which she is held by the skulking inhabitants of the camp inclines me to the belief that—­er—­judicious—­er—­handling—­”

“You mean that through her we might obtain the information we require?”

Horrocks punctuated the other’s deliberate utterances with hasty eagerness.  Lablache permitted a vague smile about the corners of his mouth, his eyes remained gleaming coldly.

“You anticipate me.  The matter would need delicate handling.  What Miss Allandale has done in the past will not be easy to find out.  Granting, of course, that gossip has not wronged her,” he went on doubtfully.  “On second thoughts, perhaps you had better leave that source of information to me.”

He relapsed apparently into deep thought.  His pensive deliberation was full of guile.  He had a purpose to achieve which necessitated the suggestion which he had made to this representative of the law.  He wished to impress upon his companion a certain connivance on the part of, at least, one member of the house of Allandale with the doings of the raider.  He merely wished to establish a suspicion in the mind of the officer.  Time and necessity might develop it, if it suited Lablache’s schemes that such should occur.  In the meantime he knew he could direct this man’s actions as he chose.

The calm superiority of the money-lender was not lost upon his companion.  Horrocks was nettled, and showed it.

“But you’ll pardon me, Mr. Lablache.  You have offered me a source of information which, as a police-officer, it is my duty to sound.  As you yourself admit, the old stories of a secret love affair may have some foundation in fact.  Accept that and what possibilities are not opened up?  Had I been employed on the affairs of Retief, during his previous raids, I should certainly have worked upon so important a clew.”

“Tut, tut, man,” retorted the other, sharply.  “I understood you to be a keen man at your business.  A single ill-timed move in the direction we are discussing and the fat will be in the fire.  The girl is as smart as paint; at the first inkling of your purpose she’ll curl up—­shut up like a rat trap.  The Breeds will be warned and we shall be further off success than ever.  No, no, when it comes to handling Jacky Allandale you leave it to me—­Ah!”