afraid to talk to me."

"I'm afraid of no man. But you--you're a fool--a sky-pilot. You're--"

"The thing is--it's not too late."

"It is too late!" she cried, with trembling lips.

Neale saw and felt his dominance over her.

"It is NEVER too late!" he responded, with all his force. "I can prove
that."

She looked at him mutely. The ghost of another girl stood there instead
of the wild Ruby of Benton.

"Pard, you're drunk shore!" ejaculated Larry, as he towered over them
and gave his belt a hitch. The cowboy sensed events.

"I've annoyed you more than once," said Neale. "This's the last.... So
tell me the truth.... Could _I_ take you away from this life?"

"Take me?... How--man?"

"I--I don't know. But somehow.... I'd hold it--as worthy--to save a girl
like you--ANY girl--from hell."

"But--how?" she faltered. The bitterness, the irony, the wrong done by
her life, was not manifest now.

"You refused my plan with Larry.... Come, let me find a home for
you--with good people."

"My God--he's not in earnest!" gasped the girl to her women friends.

"I am in earnest," said Neale.

Then the tension of the girl relaxed. Her face showed a rebirth of soul.

"I can't accept," she replied. If she thanked him it was with a look.
Assuredly her eyes had never before held that gaze for Neale. Then
she left the room, and presently Stanton's companion followed her. But
Beauty Stanton remained. She appeared amazed, even dismayed.

Larry lighted his cigarette. "Shore I'd call thet a square kid," he
said. "Neale, if you get any drunker you'll lose all thet money."

"I'll lose it anyhow," replied Neale, absent-mindedly.

"Wal, stake me right heah an' now."

At that Neale generously and still absent-mindedly delivered to Larry a
handful of gold and notes that he did not count.

"Hell! I ain't no bank," protested the cowboy.

Hough and Ancliffe joined them and with amusement watched Larry try to
find pockets enough for his small fortune.

"Easy come, easy go in Benton," said the gambler, with a smile. Then
his glance, alighting upon the quiet Stanton, grew a little puzzled.
"Beauty, what ails you?" he asked.

She was pale and her expressive eyes were fixed upon Neale. Hough's
words startled her.

"What ails me?... Place, I've had a forgetful moment--a happy one--and
I'm deathly sick!"

Ancliffe stared in surprise. He took her literally.

Beauty Stanton looked at Neale again. "Will you come to see me?" she
ask