u would like to think him a romantic victim
of somebody, just because he is so good-looking. I'm going to talk to
Harris. He won't sympathize with the wrong side, I am sure."

He looked up eagerly as she entered, his eyes full of anxious question.
She touched his hand kindly and sat close beside him as she talked.

"You want to know all about it, don't you?" she asked, softly. "Well, it
is all over. He was alive, after all, and I would not believe it. But now
you need never trail him again, you can rest now, for he is dead. Somebody
else has--has owed him a grudge, too. They think I am the somebody, but
you don't believe that?"

He shook his head decidedly.

"No," she continued; "though for one moment, Joe, I thought that it might
have been you. Yes, I did; for of course I knew it was only weakness would
keep you from it, if you were in reach of him. But I remembered at once
that it could not be, for the hand that struck him was strong."

He assented in his silent way, and watched her face closely, as if to read
the shadows of thought thrown on it by her feelings.

"It's awful, ain't it?" she whispered. "It is what I said I hoped for, and
just yet I can't be sorry--I can't! But, after this stir is all over, I
know it will trouble me, make me sorry because I am not sorry now. I can't
cry, but I do feel like screaming. And see! every once in a while my hands
tremble; I tremble all over. Oh, it is awful!"

She buried her face in her hands. Only to him did she show any of the
feeling with which the death of the man touched her.

"And you can't tell me anything of how it was done?" she said, at last.
"You so near--did you see any one?"

She longed to ask if he had seen Overton, but dared not utter his name,
lest he might suspect as she did. Each hour that went by was an added gain
to her for him. Of course he had struck, not knowing who the man was. If
he had known, it would have been so easy to say, "I found him robbing the
cabin. I killed him," and there would have been no further question
concerning it.

"But if all the other bars were beaten down between us, this one would
keep me from ever shaking hands with him again. Why should it have been he
out of all the camp? Oh, it makes my heart ache!"

While she sat thus, with miserable thoughts, others came to the door, and
looking up, she saw Akkomi, who looked on her with keen, accusing eyes.

"No--it is not true, Akkomi," she said, in his own jargon. "Keep sile