been your end.... Well, I thought, here's an opportunity to
make a man out of my friend, and save the soul of a girl who hasn't had
a chance. I never hesitated about taking advantage of you. That was
only a means to an end. So I planned it and did it."

"But, Pan--how impossible!" she replied brokenly.

"Why, I'd like to know?"

"I am--degraded."

"No! I've a different notion. You were _not_ when you were sober.
But even so, _that_ is past."

"Blink might have been what you said, but still I--I'm no fit wife for
him."

"You _can_ be," went on Pan with strong feeling. "Just blot out the
past. Begin now. Blink will make a good man, a successful rancher.
He has money enough to start with. He'll never drink again. No matter
what you call yourself, you're the only girl he ever loved. You're the
only one who can make him earnest. Blink saw as well as I the pity of
it--your miserable existence there in that gambling hell."

"Pan, you talk--like--oh, you make me think of what might have been,"
she cried. "But I'll not consent. I'll not give men the right to
point their fingers at Blink.... I'll run away--or--or kill myself."

"Louie, that is silly talk," censured Pan sharply. "Don't make me
regret my interest in you--my affection. You are judging this thing
with your mind on the past. You're not considering the rough wild raw
life we cowboys have lived. We must make way for the pioneers and
become pioneers ourselves. In fifty years, when the West is settled,
who will ever recall such as you and Blinky? These are hard days. You
can do as much for the future of the West as _any_ woman, Louise
Melliss!"

"Pan, I understand--I--I could--I know, if I dared to bury it all. But
I want to play square."

"Could you come to love my friend--in time--I mean? That's the great
thing."

"I believe I love him now," she murmured. "That's why I _can't_ risk
it.--Someone who knew me would turn up. To disgrace my
husband--and--and children, if I had any."

"Not one chance in a million," flashed Pan, feeling that she could not
withstand him. "We're going far--into another country.... Besides,
everyone in Marco believes you lost your life in the fire."

"What--fire?"

"The Yellow Mine burned. It must have caught--when we shot out the
lamps ... Dick Hardman was burned, and a girl they took for you."

Suddenly Louise leaped up, ghastly pale.

"I remember now... Blink came to my room," she said hoar