I cannot tell you, that only the Rameros know, and hold like a
sword over my head. If I marry Marcos his father will destroy all
evidence of it and I shall have a handsome, talented, rich husband."
Eloise bowed her head and clasped her hands, crushed by the misery of
her lot.

"And if you refuse to marry this scoundrel?" I asked, bluntly.

"Then I will be a penniless outcast. The Rameros are powerful here, and
the Church will be with them, for it will get my inheritance. I am
helpless and alone and I don't know what to do."

I think I had never known what anger meant before. This beautiful girl,
homeless, and about to be robbed of her fortune, reared in luxury, with
no chance for developing self-reliance and courage, was being hemmed in
and forced to a marriage by threats of poverty and a secret something
against which she was powerless. All the manhood in me rallied to her
cause, and she was an hundredfold dearer to me now, in her helplessness.

"Eloise, I'm a horny-handed driver of a bull-team on the Santa Fe Trail,
but you will let me help you if I can. So far as your money is
concerned, there's a lot of it on earth, even if the Church should grab
up your little bit because Ferdinand Ramero says your father's will
permits it. There are evil representatives in every Church, no matter
what its name may be, Catholic, Protestant, Indian, or Jew, but Father
Josef up there is bigger than his priestly coat, and you can trust that
size anywhere. And as to the knowledge of this 'something' known just to
Ferdinand Ramero, if he is the only one who knows it, it is too small to
get far, if it were turned loose. And any man who would use such
infamous means to get what he wants is too small to have much influence
if he doesn't get it. This is a big, wide, good world, Little Lees, and
the father of Marcos Ramero, with all his power and wealth, has a short
lariat that doesn't let him graze wide. Jondo holds the other end of
that lariat, and he knows."

Eloise listened eagerly, but her face was very white.

"Gail, you don't know the Ramero blood. I am helpless and terrified with
them in spite of their suave manners and flattering words. Why did
Father Josef bring me back here if the Church is not with them? And then
that awful shadow of some hidden thing that may darken my life. I know
their cruel, pitiless hearts. They stop at nothing when they want their
way. I have known them to do the most cold-blooded deeds."

Poor Elois