“Besides—­even if there were assassins lurking behind every bunch of palmetto scrub, in the county—­do you honestly think a man of your size could do very much toward protecting me?  I’m not bragging.  But I’m counted one of the strongest men in—­”

“To-night,” said Brice, drily, “I managed to be of some slight use.  Pardon my mentioning it.  If I hadn’t been there, you’d be carrying eight inches of cold steel, between your shoulders.  And—­pardon me, again—­if you’d had the sense to stay out of the squabble a second or so longer, the man who tackled you would be either in jail or in the morgue, by this time.  I’m not oversized.  But neither is a stick of dynamite.  An automatic pistol isn’t anywhere as big as an old-fashioned blunderbuss.  But it can outshoot and outkill the blunderbuss, with very little bother.  Think it over.  And, while you’re thinking, stop to think, also, that a ‘panhandler’ doesn’t do his work with a knife.  He doesn’t try to stab a man to death, for the sake of the few dollars the victim may happen to have in his pockets.  That sort of thing calls for pluck and iron nerves and physical strength.  If a panhandler had those, he wouldn’t be a panhandler.  Any more than that chap, to-night, was a panhandler.  My idea of acting as a bodyguard for you isn’t bad.  Think it over.  You seem to need one.”

“Why do you say that?” demanded Milo, in one of his recurrent flashes of suspicion.

“Because,” said Gavin, “we’re living in the twentieth century and in real life, not in the dark ages and in a dime novel.  Nowadays, a man doesn’t risk capital punishment, lightly, for the fun of springing on a total stranger, in the dark, with a razor-edge knife.  Mr. Standish, no man does a thing like that to a stranger, or without some mighty motive.  It is no business of mine to ask that motive or to horn in on your private affairs.  And I don’t care to.  But, from your looks, you’re no fool.  You know, as well as I do, that that was no panhandler or even a highwayman.  It was an enemy whose motive for wanting to murder you, silently and surely, was strong enough to make him willing to risk death or capture.  Now, when you say you don’t need a bodyguard—­Well, it’s your own business, of course.  Let it go at that, if you like.”

Long and silently Milo Standish looked down at the nonchalant invalid.  Above, the sounds of women’s steps and an occasional snatch of a sentence could be heard.  At last, Milo spoke.

“You are right,” said he, very slowly, and as if measuring his every word.  “You are right.  There are one or two men who would like to get this land and this house and—­and other possessions of mine.  There is no reason for going into particulars that wouldn’t interest you.  Take my word.  Those reasons are potent.  I have reason to suspect that the assault on me, this evening, is concerned with their general plan to get rid of me.  Perhaps—­perhaps you’re right, about my need of a bodyguard.  Though it’s a humiliating thing for a grown man—­especially a man of my size and strength—­to confess.  We’ll talk it over, tomorrow, if you are well enough.”