to say fled:

"Are you very much hurt?" she faltered.

"Far from it." He spoke slowly. If it cost him an effort none was
discernible. "Coming into the barn tonight," he went on, very
haltingly, "I had a kind of dizzy spell." He paused again. "I've been
eating too much meat lately, anyway. They say--I fell off my horse;
leastways I bumped my head. I'll be all right tomorrow."

"Belle told me there had been a fight up at the canyon bridge," Kate
stammered, already at a loss to begin.

A sickly yellow smile pointed the silence. "I wouldn't call it exactly
a fight," he said, dwelling somewhat on the last word. "Far from it,"
he repeated, with a touch of grimness. "There was some shooting. And
some running." She could see how he paused between sentences. "But if
the other fellows ran it must have been after me. I didn't pay much
attention to who was behind. I had to make a tolerable steep grade
down the Falling Wall Ladder to the river. I was on horseback and
didn't have much leisure to pick my trail."

"And they shooting at you from the rim!"

"Well, they must have been shooting at something in my general
direction. I guess they hit me once. I didn't mind getting hit
myself, but I didn't want them to hit my horse. I was heading for the
bottom as fast as the law would allow. If they'd hit the horse, I
wouldn't have had much more than one jump from the rim to the river.
Can't ask you to sit down," he added, "unless you'll sit here on the
hay."

Without the least hesitation Kate placed herself beside him. Without
giving her a chance to speak and in the same monotone, he added: "Who
told you I was a gambler?"

Less than so blunt and unexpected a question would have sufficed to
take her aback. And she was conscious in the fading light of his
strangely bright eyes fixed steadily on her. "I don't remember anybody
ever did. I----"

"Somebody did. You told Belle once."

"It must have been long ago----"

"Is that the reason you never acted natural with me?"

She flushed with impatience. But if she tried to get away he brought
her back to the subject. Cornered, she grew resentful: "I can't tell
who told me," she pleaded, after ineffectual sparring. "I've
forgotten. Are you a gambler?" she demanded, turning inquisitor
herself.

He did not move and it was an instant before he replied: "What do you
mean," he asked, "by gambler?"

Kate's tone was hard: "Just what anybody means."

"If you m