“I am referring to that low-lived vagrant we met on the road—­that iceman—­that—­well, I don’t know what he is except that the devil seems to be kicking him under my feet to trip me.  Kate, Kate, it’s too ridiculous to talk about—­that wretch!”

“Do you mean by that remark that I am taking any interest in that young man outside of mere curiosity?”

“I don’t know why you should have any curiosity about a tramp.”

“You are not a good student of physiognomy, Richard.”

“So you have been studying him, have you?  You went away with him and left me.  What did he say to you?  Where did he leave you?  I haven’t dared to think about your going away with him.  I excused it because you were angry—­so angry you’d even pick up a tramp for an escort.  But what interest do you take in that renegade?” His tones were acrid with jealousy.

“I did not find him a renegade.  I found him a mystery, Richard.  And I hope that some day I will know what the mystery is.”

“Are you trying to drive me mad?”

“I am merely chatting along in order to keep you off a topic which is distressing.  I heard that your uncle intended to have the man investigated after he came into the office here and made that brave stand.  I happened to hear the talk the young man made.  Perhaps that accounts for my curiosity.  Did your uncle find out much about the man?”

“I don’t know what he found out,” declared Dodd, rapidly losing control of himself.  “But I propose to find out for myself.”

“Please do, Richard,” said the girl, ingenuously and earnestly.  She seemed to be losing some of the hauteur she had shown at the first of their meeting.

“I’ll find out enough to put him in jail, where he probably belongs.  I’m not going to insult you, Kate, by any more talk about a tramp.  You can’t shift me from the main topic.  Go home and talk with your mother, as I have told you.  We are going to be married!”

“Richard, our affair is ended.”

“Then who is the man?”

“There is no man.”

“If you say that and mean it, then you don’t know women as well as I know them.  You don’t know even yourself!” he declared.  “I want to say to you, Kate, that we are all walking on mighty thin ice.  The sooner you and I take hold of hands and get safely ashore—­just you and I—­the better it will be.  Just let your curiosity about other men fall asleep.  I tell you again, go home and talk with your mother.”

He bowed, reached his hand to touch hers, but refrained when she turned suddenly to her desk and resumed her work.

Young Dodd hurried out of the building without attempting to see his uncle, and cooled his head and his passion and soothed his physical discomfort by a headlong dash in his car back to the state’s capital city.

The girl took her courage in her hands and asked Mr. Peter Briggs, in as matter-of-fact tone as she could muster, whether he did not want any record copy made of his notes in regard to that person who had bearded Colonel Dodd.  But Mr. Briggs informed her that the matter was not of sufficient importance.