He made one comment when she had finished. "So I have to thank Moya Dwight for my life."
"Moya alone. They laughed at her, but she wouldn't give up. I never saw anybody so stubborn. There's something splendid in her. She didn't care what any of us thought. The one thing in her mind was that she was going to save you. So Mr. Bleyer had to get up from dinner and find out from the maps where that pipe went. He traced it to the old west shaft of the Golden Nugget."
"And what did you think?" he asked, watching her steadily.
"I admired her pluck tremendously."
"Did Verinder--and Bleyer--and Lady Farquhar?"
"How do I know what they thought?" flamed the girl. "If Mr. Verinder is cad enough----" She stopped, recalling certain obligations she was under to that gentleman.
"Why did she do it?"
She flashed a look of feminine scorn at him. "You'll have to ask Moya that--if you want to know."
He nodded his head slowly. "That's just what I'm going to do."
"You'll have more time to talk with her--now that Joyce is engaged and daren't flirt with you," his cousin suggested maliciously.
Though he tried to carry this off with a laugh, the color mounted to his face. "I've been several kinds of an idiot in my time."
"Don't you dare try any nonsense with Moya," her friend cried, a little fiercely.
"No," he agreed.
"She's not Joyce."
He had an answer for that. "I'd marry her to-morrow if she'd take me."
"You mean you...?"
"Yes. From the first day I met her again. And I didn't know it till I was down in that hell hole. Shall I tell you something?" He put his arms on the table and leaned toward her with shining eyes. "She was with me down there most of the time. Any time I stopped to listen I could hear her whisper courage in that low, sweet voice of hers."
"You know about her and Ned?"
"Yes."
"He's a better man than you are, Jack."
"Yes."
"But you won't let him have her."
"No, by God, not unless she loves him."
"She would have loved him if it hadn't been for you."
"You mean she loves me?"
"She won't marry you. She can't."
"Why not? Because I don't belong to her social set?"
"No. That would be reason enough for Joyce or me, but I don't think it would stop Moya."
"You mean--highgrading?"
"Yes."
Joyce interrupted further confidences by making her usual late appearance for breakfast. At sight of Kilmeny her eyes brightened. Life always became more interesting for her when a possible man was present. Instantly she came forward with a touch of reluctant eagerness that was very effective.