ion which he saw in their depths
caused him to look away and to bite his lips.

"There's a lot of it I wish I could undo, Laura; an' there's a lot
more of it I couldn't help, an' maybe some I--I--wasn't----" He
paused. He couldn't bring himself to say anything in extenuation of
himself and his acts in the presence of this girl. It might sound as
if he were playing for her sympathy, he thought to himself.

"Roger, I know you haven't done all the things I've heard about," she
said bravely. "And there's always a chance. You're a man. You can find
a way out. If the trails seem all twisted and tangled, you can use a
compass--your own conscience, Roger. You still have that."

"How did you happen to mention the trails bein' all mixed up like
that?" he asked curiously.

"Why--I don't know. Isn't that the way it seems?"

Rathburn looked away with a frown. "You come near hittin' the nail on
the head, Laura."

"Oh, then you _are_ beginning to think!" she said eagerly.

"I've done nothing but think for months," Rathburn confessed.

She looked at him searchingly. Then her eyes dropped to the black
butt of the gun in the holster strapped to his right thigh. She
shuddered slightly.

"You came from the west, Roger?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied shortly. "From where there's water an' timber an'
flowers an' grass--but they had my number there, just the same as
they've got it here. I'm a marked man, Laura Mallory."

She leaned upon the table with one hand; the other she held upon her
breast.

"Are--are they--after you, Roger?" she asked in a low, anxious tone.

"As usual," he answered with a vague laugh. "Laura, I didn't come here
to bother you with my troubles; I come here just to see _you_."

The girl colored. "I know, Roger. We've known each other a long
time--since we were children. You wouldn't like it for me not to show
any concern over your troubles, would you?"

"I wish we could talk about something else," said Rathburn. "I can't
stay long."

Laura Mallory looked worried. "May I ask where you plan to go,
Roger?"

"I'm not sure. I only know I wanted to come back, an' I came. I hadn't
any fixed plans, an' I wasn't expecting the reception I got." His face
clouded. Then he looked straight into the girl's eyes. "I hit this
country this morning," he said steadily. "The first folks I saw was
some men ridin' in my direction up between the lava hills and the
range. Then things began to happen."

She nodded brightly