h, my friend, how will you be safe?"

"Leave that to me," he replied, comprehending her at once. "I will take
care of that man."

"Do be prudent."

"I will. For _your_ sake, my dear child, I promise it. Well, now we must
part. I must rouse no suspicions."

"Yes. We must be prudent."

He was about to leave her when a new and terrible thought struck him, and
made him look at her as though they were about to part forever.

"If Munoz leaves you his fortune," he said firmly, "you shall be free."

She stared; after a moment she burst into a little laugh; then she shook
her finger in his face and said, blushing, "Yes, free to be--your wife."

He caught the finger, bent his head over it and kissed it, ready to cry
upon it. It was the only kiss that he had given her; and what a world-wide
event it was to both! Ah, these lovers! They find a universe where others
see only trifles; they are gifted with the second-sight and live amid
miracles.

"Do be careful, oh my dear friend!" was the last whisper of Clara as
Thurstane quitted the tower. Then she passed the day in ascending and
descending between heights of happiness and abysses of anxiety. Her
existence henceforward was a Jacob's ladder, which had its foot on a world
of crime and sorrow, and its top in heavens passing description.

As for Thurstane, he had to think and act, for something must be done with
Texas Smith. He queried whether the fellow might not have seen Clara when
she pushed him out of the crevice, and would not seize the first
opportunity to kill her. Angered by this supposition, he at first resolved
to seize him, charge him with his crime, and turn him loose in the desert
to take his chance among the Apaches. Then it occurred to him that it
might be possible to change this enemy into a partisan. While he was
pondering these matters his eye fell upon the man. His army habit of
authority and of butting straight at the face of danger immediately got
the better of his wish to manage the matter delicately, and made him
forget his promises to be prudent. Beckoning Texas to follow him, he
marched out of the plaza through the nearest gap, faced about upon his foe
with an imperious stare, and said abruptly, "My man, do you want to be
shot?"

Texas Smith had his revolver and long hunting-knife in his waist-belt. He
thought of drawing both at once and going at Thurstane, who was certainly
in no better state for battle, having only revolver and sabre. But the
ch