fir-branches.

"Ho," sneered Quinnion, his mood from the first plain enough to read in
the glimpses of his face and in the added harshness of his voice.
"Timid little fawn, huh? By God, a man would say from the bluff you
put up that it was all a dream about findin' you an' the han'some Lee
in the cabin together! Stan' off all you damn please; I've come to
tame you, you little beauty of the big innocent eyes!"

Not drunk; no, Quinnion was never drunk. But, as he came a step
closer, the heavy air of the cave grew heavier with the whiskey he
carried, whiskey enough to stimulate the evil within him, not to quench
it.

"Stand back!" cried Judith, with a sharp intake of breath. "I want to
talk with you, Chris Quinnion."

"So you know who I am, do you? Well, much good it'll do you."

"I know who you are and what you are," she told him defiantly, suddenly
sick of her long hours of playing baby, knowing at the moment less fear
than hatred and loathing. "Listen to me: Bayne Trevors has come out in
the open at last; he has made his big play and is going to lose out on
it. Your one chance now is to let me go and to go yourself. Go fast
and far, Chris Quinnion. For when the law knows the sort Bayne Trevors
is and how you have worked hand and glove with him, it will know just
how much his word was worth when he swore you were with him when father
was killed! Coward and cur and murderer!"

Quinnion laughed at her.

"Little pussy-cat," he jeered. "You've got claws, have you? And you
spit and growl, do you? Want me to let you go back to that swaggering
lover of yours, do you? Back to Lee----"

"That's enough, Quinnion," she said sharply.

"Is it?" He laughed at her again, and again came on toward her, the
red-rimmed evil of his eyes driving quick fear at last into her.
"Enough? Why, curse you and curse him, I haven't begun yet! When I'm
through with you I'll go fast enough. And he can have you then an'
damn welcome to him!"

"Stop!" cried Judith.

His laughter did not reach her ears now, but as he kicked the fire at
his foot and the flames leaped up and showed his face, she read the
laughter in his soul; read it through the gleaming eyes, the twisted
mouth which showed the teeth at one side in a horrible leer. His long
arms thrust out before him, he came on.

"Oh, my God!" cried Judith. "My God!"

Then suddenly she was silent. She thought that she had known the
uttermost of fear and now for the firs