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Rh when she had been formally charged to appear at the Edmonton Sessions as soon as Forsyth had brought the other witnesses down from Chipewyan and formally freed on bail provided by Leigh and Tempest himself. He had been gentle with her then, as he was gentle now. But the old buoyant sympathy and understanding were gone.

"I—I suppose there would be no use in my applying force to prevent you," she said, struggling to maintain an injured dignity.

A gleam of fun lit Tempest's eyes. She looked so very small and frail.

"I am afraid not. You see I have Corporal Heriot here too."

Jennifer reddened. Then she stood aside from the door with lips set and eyes defiant, and the two men passed her and went in. Where Ducane's reading-lamp burnt on his desk a litter of papers was scattered. Drawers and boxes were open on the floor; ashes smouldered in the fireplace among broken plates from Ducane's camera. Dick said nothing. He had expected it from the first sight of her, but his face was hard with anger. Even now his work came before everything; before Jennifer herself. He crossed to the fire quickly, kicking the ashes apart, and rescuing some half-burnt sheets. But Tempest turned back to Jennifer, and pity and admiration were in his voice.

"You brave little woman," he said. "You brave little woman."

Jennifer's defiance fled before a rush of tears.

"What's the use of it?" she sobbed. "What's the use now! Oh, what will Harry say! What will Harry say!"

"I know what he ought to say." He looked at Slicker. "Won't you take her away and—and—do what you can, Slicker?" he said. "We can't help this, you know. And will you remember, Mrs. Ducane, that the keenest joys and the worst sorrows are those which never come. You may have no need to dread anything at all."

"Come along, honey." Slicker hugged her up against his arm. "Sakes alive, if I'd known what you were after I'd have had you out of there pretty quick. Left you to do his dirty work for him, did he? On my soul, I"