So it was with a mind doubtful and troubled more than it had ever been since the beginning of these things that he came to the border where the sweet-peas grew, and saw a dark shadow already close by them.
But when he came a little nearer he saw that it was not Ella who was there but Deede Dawson and his first thought was that she had betrayed him.
“That you, Dunn?” Deede Dawson hailed him in his usual pleasant, friendly manner.
“Yes,” Dunn answered warily, keeping himself ready for any eventuality.
Deede Dawson took a cigar from his pocket and lighted it and offered one to Dunn, who refused it abruptly.
Deede Dawson laughed at that in his peculiar, mirthless way.
“Am I being the third that's proverbially no company?” he asked. “Were you expecting to find some one else here? I thought I saw a white frock vanish just as I came up.”
Dunn made no answer, and Deede Dawson continued after a pause
“That's why I waited. You are being just a little bit rapid in this affair, aren't you?”
“I don't know why. You said something, didn't you?” muttered Dunn, beginning to think that, after all, Deede Dawson's presence here was due to accident--or rather to his unceasing and unfailing watchfulness, and not to any treachery of Ella's.
“Yes, I did, didn't I?” he agreed pleasantly. “But you are a working gardener taken on out of charity to give you a chance and keep you out of gaol, and you are looking a little high when you think of your master's ward and daughter, aren't you?”
“There was a time when I shouldn't have thought so,” answered Dunn.
“We're talking of the present, my good man,” Deede Dawson said impatiently. “If you want the girl you must win her. It can be done, but it won't be easy.”
“Oh, that's going too fast and too far,” answered the other with his mirthless laugh. “Now, there's Mr. John Clive--what about him?”
“I'll answer for him,” replied Dunn slowly and thickly. “I've put better men than John Clive out of my way before today.”
“That's the way to talk,” cried Deede Dawson. “Dunn, dare you play a big game for big stakes?”
“If I showed you,” Deede Dawson's voice sank to a whisper, “if I showed you a pretty girl for a wife--a fortune to win--what would you say?”
“Try me,” said Dunn again, and then, making his voice as low and hoarse as was Dunn's, he asked: