since he had come in wounded
she had been the prey of fears for him. "It's a mystery how you
escaped." He had to tell every detail of his flight down the canyon.
"By rights," he said in conclusion, "they ought to have got me. No man
should have got out of that scrape as well as I did. Van Horn didn't
get into action quick enough. And it seemed to me as if Stone himself
was a little slow." The way he spoke the things strengthened her
confidence. And his arm held her so close!

"I'll tell you, Kate," he added. "You can easy enough hire a fellow to
kill a man. But you can't really hire one to hate a man. And if he
doesn't really hate him, he won't be as keen on your job as you'd be
yourself. These hired men will booze once in awhile--or go to sleep,
maybe. It's work for a clear head and takes patience to hide in the
rocks day after day and wait for one certain man to ride by so you can
shoot him. If you doze off, your man may pass while you snore. And
the kind of man you can hire isn't as keen on getting a man as the man
himself is on not getting 'got'--that's where the chance is, sometimes,
to pull out better than even."

Because his aim was to reassure, to relieve her anxiety, he did not
tell her that all the unfavorable conditions he had named, while never
before arrayed against him at one time, were now pretty much all
present together. Kate herself, he knew, stood more than ever between
him and Van Horn. Stone had been twice publicly disgraced by Laramie
at Tenison's--he would never forgive that. He had the patience of the
assassin and when hatred swayed him he did not sleep--these were still,
Laramie knew in his heart, bridges to be crossed.

But why spoil an hour's happiness with the thought of them now?
Laramie drew his hand across his heated forehead as if to clear his
eyes and look again down into the face close to his and assure himself
he was not really dreaming. "What do I care about them all, Kate," he
would say, "now that I've got you? No, now that you've given yourself
to me--that's what I'll say--what do I care what they do?"

But she would look up, sudden with apprehension: "But don't you think
_I_ care? Jim, let's leave this country soon, soon."

Laramie laughed indulgently: "Somebody'll have to leave it pretty
soon--that's certain."

A rude knock at the door broke into his words. Kate threw her hands
against his breast. She stared at him thunderstruck, and sprang from
the s