is desire as it did in his harsher tempers.
"I just don't care for nothing else but you. An'--I got you now. Here,
you haven't kissed me since I came back. I'd forgot, thinking of that
sixty thousand of gold-dust. I'm off again in ha'f-an-hour--an' I
won't be back for three days. Here--"

His arms were held out and he drew nearer. But now the woman drew back
in unmistakable horror.

"Say," he cried in a voice still passionate, yet half angry, "you
don't need to get away. Ther's a wall back of you." Then, as she still
shrank back, and he saw the obvious terror in her eyes, his
swift-changing mood lost its warmth of passion and left it only angry.
"Ther's three other walls an' a door to this room, an' I can easy shut
the door."

He reached out and caught her by one arm. He swung her to him as
though she were a child. There was no escape. She struggled to free
herself, but her strength was as the strength of a babe to his, and in
a moment she was caught in his arms and hugged to his breast. She
writhed to free herself, but her efforts made no impression. And,
having possession of her, the man laughed. It was not a pleasant
laugh. He looked down at her. Her head was thrown back to avoid him.
His hot eyes grinned tantalizingly into her face.

"It's no use," he said. "You got to kiss me. You're mine. No, no,
don't you bother to kick any. You can't get away. Now, Jess, kiss me.
Kiss me good--good an' plenty." His arms crushed her closer. "What,
you won't? You won't kiss me? Ha, ha! Maybe that's why you ran back
into the house when I come along. Maybe that's why you wouldn't answer
when I called. What's come to you?"

He held her, waiting for a reply. But the woman was beyond speech in
her horror and rage. She was no longer terrified. She was beside
herself with fury and revolting. She hated the crushing arms about
her--the arms of a murderer. That one word stood out in her mind,
maddening her. She would not kiss him. She could not. She gasped and
struggled. She wanted to shriek for help, but that, she knew, was
useless.

"Let me go!" she cried, her voice hoarse with a fury equal to anything
he was capable of.

But she only held her the tighter; he only grinned the more. He, too,
was furious. He, too, meant to have his way. He was determined she
should submit.

Submission, however, was the farthest from her thoughts. He bent his
head forward. It came nearer to her up-thrown chin.

"Let me go! Let me go, you--you--m