“Kirby knew?  Why do you say that?”

“He boasted of it.  I thought little about what he said at the time, but I believe now one of his main objects was to gain possession of this girl.  That would account for his insistence upon that peculiar clause in the bill of sale—­he either suspected, or had discovered through some source, that Rene Beaucaire had never been set free.  For some reason he desired possession of both Beaucaire girls; they meant more to him than either the money or the property.  This card game gave him one; the other—­”

“Eloise, you mean?  Did the fellow threaten her?”

“Here is what he said sneeringly, you can judge yourself what he meant, ’She’s worth fifty thousand dollars by her mother’s will, and I intend to win her if I can, fair means or foul.’”

Haines did not speak for some moments, his eyes on my face.  Then he paced back and forth across the floor, finally stopping before the fire.

“This is as near hell as anything I ever knew,” he said, “and so far as I can see there is no legal way out of it.  We are utterly helpless to assist.”

“We are not,” I answered hotly, “if we are men.  There may be no legal way in which we can beat this villain, but there is an illegal one, unless we are already too late, and I propose to use it, whether you join me or not.”

“You have a plan?  What is it?”

“The only one feasible.  I thought of its possibility before on the boat, when a suspicion of this situation first came to me.  You are sure the girls are still at the plantation house? that they know nothing of this condition?”

“I have reason to believe so.  Delia was buying provisions at the Landing yesterday; I talked with her a moment.”

“And you said that Kirby and Carver were only in town for one night, leaving the next morning on a keel-boat for St. Louis.  Probably they did not visit the plantation at all, unless it was to scout around.  My idea is they were not quite ready to take possession; that they have gone to St. Louis to file the papers, and will come back with officers prepared to execute them.  This means that we must work fast to get out of their way.”

“What do you propose doing?”

“Let me ask a question first.  Is it true that Eloise Beaucaire is heiress to fifty thousand dollars through her mother’s estate?”

“Yes, I invested most of it.”

“In what?”

“New Orleans property principally.”

“Then it is safe enough whatever happens.  The only thing we can do is this:  Tell those girls and the mother the whole truth—­tell them at once, before Kirby can return, and then help them to get out of this country.  It is not necessary for Eloise to go, unless she desires to, but there is no other safe course for Delia and Rene.  They must reach a northern state before Kirby can lay hands on them.  Could Delia pass for a white woman?”