OLD BROADBRIM AND THE FAIR AVENGER.

Old Broadbrim looked again at the face in the hay, and caught a gleam of friendship in the eyes, despite the words Stareyes had just spoken.

She knew his secret.

In some manner the girl whom he had promised to remove for Merle Macray had penetrated his disguise, and the secret he had guarded so well, carrying it across the ocean, was in the hands of a creature whose whole thought was revenge.

"We can be friends, Roland Riggs," continued Stareyes. "You have just seen him—I saw both of you at the bridge—and you have given him a promise."

"You know him?"

"Who has cause to know him better?" cried Stareyes. "I've known him ever since he came out to Australia; and with her whom he serves he plays a bold hand for money."

"Tell me about him."

The face came nearer, and the next moment the girl dropped deftly from the hay and stood before the detective.

"They call me Stareyes," she went on. "I am an Australian. My father died on a ranch years ago, and my mother—about her anon, perhaps. But first tell me what fetches you out here? What made you quit your own country? What did Merle Macray do there?"

Old Broadbrim hesitated.

Should he tell this girl of the crime on Fifth Avenue?

Would it be altogether wise to acquaint her with the real secret of his mission?

"He committed a crime, didn't he, sir?" she exclaimed, laying her hand on Old Broadbrim's arm. "And you have come out to take him away from me. Why, sir, if I chose I could turn you in a moment over to death, and you would never drag him from Round Robin Ranch. You saved his life last night, and he does not dream that you did so in order to bring him some day under the halter. What if he should discover this? Why, as cool as you are and as brave, your life wouldn't be worth the sunbeams on the grass."

"Let that go, girl. It is something I know already and I fear it not."

"I like brave men. But you have not answered me. What did he do in America? She sent him away."

"Belle Demona?"

"Bella, the Demon," cried Stareyes. "She sent him off on the dark mission across the sea. But for her he would not have gone and committed the crime. I heard the bargain."

"You heard it, girl? When?"

"More than six months ago."

"Here?"

"In yonder house. I was a shadow on the porch underneath the window, and but little of the bargain escaped me. He was to avenge her."

"Who had wronged her?"

"A nabob in New York."

"How?"

"He had dashed her hopes to earth at Monaco. Ah! this woman is hatred personified. She swore revenge in the moonlit garden there. She treasured her vengeance all this time in her heart. It was years ago, when she was but a little chit with money and little reputation—the prettiest adventuress in the swim.

"He was traveling on the Continent then, and her face charmed him. But he was suddenly undeceived. He discovered that she was not the angel he deemed her, and when he found it out he turned hater and spurned her at Monaco.

"That is what made her hate him. Did she keep track of him all this time? Partly so. He eluded her and kept out of her sight, but somehow he turned up on her trail and the oath was renewed."

"And she sent Merle across the sea to kill him?"

"Did he do it?" cried Stareyes. "Did he find the doomed nabob in New York, and did he carry out his promise to Belle Demona? That's why you are here, is it? You've tracked him to the bush. You have entered the lion's den, and now you are in my hands—in mine, sir!"

Once more the face before the detective assumed a mad look, but the voice was as gentle as ever.

"Yes, sir," resumed Stareyes. "It must have been six months ago, though, from what I have learned by playing spy here, the man who crossed her path knew long ago that he was doomed. Perhaps he treated it lightly, believing that he was safe from the hands of the adventuress he had spurned, but he fell at last by her command."

"Then," said Old Broadbrim, looking down into the girl's eyes, "why don't you let me take him?"

"What would I do for vengeance?" she cried.

"The same noose will avenge the murdered millionaire and you, too."

"No! I want to avenge myself."

"And cheat me?"

There was a smile on the detective's face, and for a moment it lingered there while Stareyes watched it intently.

"Do you know what came in the letter last night?" she suddenly asked.

"In the one the boy brought from Perth?"

"Yes."

"I do not."

"He read it alone in the room. I heard him mutter its contents, for I was his shadow even then. It told about the man who escaped from Old Danny's pit."

"Indeed?"

"It was from Danny himself. He sent the letter post-haste here to inform Merle that the detective—you, sir—was not in the well, but had eluded the old wretch of Melbourne."

"And he will look for me here, eh?"

"That's it! What made him take the lantern last night and enter the guardhouse? Why with his keen eyes did he look over the sleeping men there? He was already on the hunt!"

"I saw him."

"And escaped? What if he should discover that you are not Roland Riggs, but the hunter from across the sea? It would be death."

"I know that, girl, but I am ready to face the worst."

"Then play fair with me. If I avenge myself you need not be troubled with taking a man across the sea. Stand back, sir, and let Stareyes take care of the inmates of Ranch Robin."

Old Broadbrim was not inclined to do this.

The girl should not baffle him nor throw him for a moment off the bush trail.

"I understand. You don't intend to do it!" she cried. "You have made up your mind that I am to be brushed aside, and treated like a viper which one finds in one's path. You intend to dare me to do my worst. Beware, sir!"

Her hand fell away from Old Broadbrim's arm, and she stepped back.

"I could betray you," ventured the detective. "They want to find you and for them to discover you in the sheepsheds would be the beginning of your end."

"Go out there and betray me!" cried Stareyes. "Go out and tell the pair in this bush Eden that I am Stareyes, and that the old sheds shelter me. I am here, but I am not defenseless."

She drew from her bosom a long-bladed knife with a black ebony hilt which she gripped, and raised suddenly over her head.

"Stareyes did not come here unarmed. She is ready for the enemy. She has taken an oath that the man who spurned her, and even heaped insults upon her mother, shall die the death. All your cunning cannot save him from Stareyes' blade. We are in the play, and a human life is the stake. Go out and betray me if you care to, but remember that the lips of Stareyes can utter truths which may seal the doom of the American detective!"

It was a critical situation for the Quaker.

Stareyes was determined, and her bosom rose and fell like the ocean tide while the threat passed her lips.

Her hands seemed to lose blood, and her eyes emitted sparks of light akin to fire.

Old Broadbrim looked down into her face, and stepped back.

"You're safe," said he.

Her face did not change, but her knife was put away.

"I will not betray you, but you must not step between me and my quarry."

"I make no promises," haughtily said the girl.

The detective went to the door and looked over the landscape toward the ranch house.

Her gaze followed his and she said suddenly:

"They're in a glass house, which is liable to be shattered. Captain Blacklocks, the man who led the robbers last night, will have revenge. You didn't kill the man, though his friends dragged him away. He will come again, and some night, unless we strike soon, the ranch will crumble before the flames, and Merle and Belle Demona will end their careers in the light of the burning bush palace. These bandits of the desert are men of purpose and demons without mercy. They will avenge the battle of last night, and if they ever get hold of you as Roland Riggs, the guardsman, you will never see the flag of your land again."

Old Broadbrim held out his hand, which the girl took.

"Keep out of sight," he said. "Don't play spy too often while you're here. There are eyes about the ranch as keen as yours and you know that Demon Belle hates you like a viper."

"On that score there's no love lost," laughed the girl from Perth. "Wait till we stand face to face, as we will some day. Then you shall see this proud woman, this adventuress, cower before me and beg for mercy."

"The ranch queen? I don't know about that," smiled Old Broadbrim.

"Wait and see."

And with this the girl looked away, her face paling in the light and her lips compressed.

In another moment the detective was walking from the scene of his encounter with Stareyes.

He was known to her.

She was a strange creature and her revenge had turned her head.

He knew that he was in more danger than ever, for the girl in her eagerness to get the best of Merle and Belle Demona would be likely to precipitate matters and unmask him.

If she were out of the way all would be well, but she was now in his path and the storm was on the eve of breaking out.

Back to the ranch house went the detective.

He came face to face with the ranch queen on the porch of vines and her voice greeted him.

He entered the house at her suggestion and was waved to a seat.

"You're a brave fellow, Riggs," said she, looking at him. "I am glad you came out to us, for we are in the shadow of a great event. But I want to show you something. It will strengthen your loyalty to us."

She touched a button set in the wall, and a door opened slowly.

This disclosed a flight of steps, and the woman descended with the detective at her heels.

At the bottom of the flight she struck a match and lit a lamp.

"Look!" she said, pointing away. "Behold something worth fighting for. I feel that we can trust you, Riggs."

Old Broadbrim looked and uttered an exclamation of surprise.