“You are a sergeant of the police,” she said, the softness gone suddenly out of her voice.  “You are an honorable man, m’sieu.  Your hand is against all wrong.  Is it not so?” It was the voice of an inquisitor.  She was demanding an answer of him.

He nodded.  “Yes, it is so.”

The fire in her eyes deepened.  “And yet you say you want to be the friend of a stranger who has tried to kill you.  Why, m’sieu?”

He was cornered.  He sensed the humiliation of it, the impossibility of confessing to her the wild impulse that had moved him before he knew she was St. Pierre’s wife.  And she did not wait for him to answer.

“This—­this Roger Audemard—­if you catch him—­what will you do with him?” she asked.

“He will be hanged,” said David.  “He is a murderer.”

“And one who tries to kill—­who almost succeeds—­what is the penalty for that?” She leaned toward him, waiting.  Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap, the spots were brighter in her cheeks.

“From ten to twenty years,” he acknowledged.  “But, of course, there may be circumstances—­”

“If so, you do not know them,” she interrupted him.  “You say Roger Audemard is a murderer.  You know I tried to kill you.  Then why is it you would be my friend and Roger Audemard’s enemy?  Why, m’sieu?”

Carrigan shrugged his shoulders hopelessly.  “I shouldn’t,” he confessed.  “I guess you are proving I was wrong in what I said.  I ought to arrest you and take you back to the Landing as soon as I can.  But, you see, it strikes me there is a big personal element in this.  I was the man almost killed.  There was a mistake,—­must have been, for as soon as you put me out of business you began nursing me back to life again.  And—­”

“But that doesn’t change it,” insisted St. Pierre’s wife.  “If there had been no mistake, there would have been a murder.  Do you understand, m’sieu?  If it had been some one else behind that rock, I am quite certain he would have died.  The Law, at least, would have called it murder.  If Roger Audemard is a criminal, then I also am a criminal.  And an honorable man would not make a distinction because one of them is a woman!”

“But—­Black Roger was a fiend.  He deserves no mercy.  He—­”

“Perhaps, m’sieu!”

She was on her feet, her eyes flaming down upon him.  In that moment her beauty was like the beauty of Carmin Fanchet.  The poise of her slender body, her glowing cheeks, her lustrous hair, her gold-flecked eyes with the light of diamonds in them, held him speechless.

“I was sorry and went back for you,” she said.  “I wanted you to live, after I saw you like that on the sand.  Bateese says I was indiscreet, that I should have left you there to die.  Perhaps he is right.  And yet—­even Roger Audemard might have had that pity for you.”

She turned quickly, and he heard her moving away from him.  Then, from the door, she said,