"Haven't you looked at it since that day?"
"No—but I will now."
He reached inside his shirt and unfastened the pin. As the sunlight fell on it, he frowned slightly; the broken enamel on its face did not seem—suddenly he turned it over, and read the initials "H.E.M."
"By thunder!" he exclaimed, looking up at the laughing girl. "I handed you the wrong pin, eh? It was a mistake, Kathleen——"
She nodded. "Yes. I discovered it after you had gone, so when I came I brought this one of yours with me."
Norton looked at the pin she held out, recognizing it for his own. Yet he made no move to take it. Much as it meant to him, being his only memorial from the father he could not remember, he only looked at it and admired the slim beauty of the palm on which it lay. Hers was not the hand of a backwoods woman, he thought.
"Listen, Kitty," he said slowly. "Just as soon as I've cleared up this Blacknose affair here, I'm going to Cincinnati and find out who the owner of this pin of yours really was. A number of the Cincinnati are there or in the neighbourhood, and they will have records of the Order. Let me keep your eagle until then, and you keep mine as an earnest that I will return yours."
He found her face suddenly grave.
"I do not want to lose it," she said quietly. "It means a good deal to me, after what you have said——"
"Nor do I want to lose mine," he broke in, smiling. "Oh, you are not so easily rid of me, Kitty! I will find your true name for you, and that's a promise; until then, I will keep your eagle and do you keep mine in pledge of my return. Not that you need the pledge, since it would be a far harder matter to keep away from your eyes——"