Her husband nodded, without looking up.

No man can sacrifice his mate to save his own hide and still hold her
respect. June looked at him in a nausea of sick scorn. She turned from
him, wasting no more words.

She and Houck vanished into the gathering darkness.

CHAPTER X

IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

Houck's jeering laugh of triumph came back to the humiliated boy. He
noticed for the first time that two or three men were watching him from
the door of the saloon. Ashamed to the depths of his being, he hung his
head dejectedly. All his life he would be a marked figure because Jake
had stamped the manhood out of him, had walked off with his bride of an
hour.

In the country of the open spaces a man must have sand. Courage is the
basis upon which the other virtues are built, the fundamental upon which
he is most searchingly judged. Let a man tell the truth, stick to his
pal, and fight when trouble is forced on him, and he will do to ride the
river with, in the phrase of the plains.

Bob had lost June. She would, of course, never look at him again. To have
failed her so miserably cut deep into his pride and self-respect. With
her he had lost, too, the esteem of all those who lived within a radius
of fifty miles. For the story would go out to every ranch and cow-camp.
Worst of all he had blown out the dynamic spark within himself that is
the source of life and hope.

He did not deceive himself. Houck had said he was going to take June to
her father. But he had said it with a cynical sneer on his lips. For the
girl to be Jake's wife would have been bad enough, but to be his victim
without the protection of legality would be infinitely worse. And that
was the lot to which June was destined. She had fought, but she could
fight no longer.

Fate had played her a scurvy trick in the man she had chosen. Another
husband--Dud Hollister, for instance--would have battled it out for her
to a finish, till he had been beaten so badly he could no longer crawl to
his feet. If Bob had done that, even though he had been hopelessly
overmatched, he would have broken Houck's power over June. All the wild,
brave spirit of her would have gone out to her husband in a rush of
feeling. The battle would have been won for them both. The thing that had
stung her pride and crushed her spirit was that he had not struck a blow
for her. His cowardice had driven her to Jake Houck's arms because there
was no other place for her to go.

Their ad