But Jan could not understand, and she played with fire--the fire
of two hearts instead of one. The world went to pieces under Jan after
that. There came the day when, in fair fight, he choked the taunting
sneer from O'Grady's face back in the woods. He fought like a tiger, a
mad demon. No one ever knew of that fight. And with the demon still
raging in his breast he faced the girl. He could never quite remember
what he had said. But it was terrible--and came straight from his soul.
Then he went out, leaving Marie standing there white and silent. He did
not go back. He had sworn never to do that, and during the weeks that
followed it spread about that Marie Cummins had turned down Jan Larose,
and that Clarry O'Grady was now the lucky man. It was one of the
unexplained tricks of fate that had brought them together, and had set
their discovery stakes side by side on Pelican Creek.
To-day, in spite of his smiling coolness, Jan's heart rankled with a
bitterness that seemed to be concentrated of all the dregs that had ever
entered into his life. It poisoned him, heart and soul. He was not a
coward. He was not afraid of O'Grady.
And yet he knew that fate had already played the cards against him. He
would lose. He was almost confident of that, even while he nerved himself
to fight. There was the drop of savage superstition in him, and he told
himself that something would happen to beat him out.
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