days of old. Loyalty with the latter was a vital thing, and how could
he endure a man so bitterly opposed to the King?

The invalid surmised her thoughts as he watched her. She presented a
charming picture, ensconced in the deep chair, and he could well
understand how Dane must love her. He had always longed for a
daughter, and of the many girls he had ever known, the one now before
him appealed to him most of all. She was the only white woman who had
entered his house since his wife's death, and he had been strongly
drawn to her from the first time of meeting. Living so much among
rough, rebellious men, he had acquired many of their ways. But in the
presence of this sweet, gentle girl these had vanished like ice before
the bright sun, and the real nobleness of his nature re-asserted
itself. He was tired of the life he had been living for years. He
longed for companions after his own heart, and a home such as he had
known in the past. And what a home the girl before him would make!
And reconciled to his only son, what a heaven on earth it would be!




CHAPTER XXVI

BEHIND THE BOLTED DOOR

When Thomas Norman fled with his wife and child from the restraining
bonds of civilisation and became the leader of a band of lawless rovers
of the wild, he little realised how far-reaching would be the effect of
his rash and hasty action. In the spirit of revenge he had sown the
wind, but he had forgotten the whirlwind that one day he would be