manifest fact
was that Durade had not before matched himself against a gambler of
Hough's caliber.

"Well, are you only a bluff or do we go on with the game?" inquired
Hough.

Durade choked back his rage and signified with a motion of his hand that
play should be resumed.

Allie fastened her eyes upon the door. She was in a tumult of emotion.
Despite that, her mind revolved wild and intermittent ideas as to the
risk of letting Neale see and recognize her there. Yet her joy was so
overpowering that she believed if he entered the door she would rush to
him and trust in God to save her. In God and Reddy King! She remembered
the cowboy, and a thrill linked all her emotions. Durade and his gang
would face a terrible reckoning if Reddy King ever entered to see her
there.

Moments passed. The gambling went on. The players spoke low; the
spectators were silent. Discordant sounds from outside disturbed the
quiet.

Allie stared fixedly at the door. Presently it opened. Ancliffe entered
with several men, all quick in movement, alert of eye. But Neale and
Larry King were not among them. Allie's heart sank like lead. The
revulsion of feeling, the disappointment, was sickening. She saw
Ancliffe shake his head, and divined in the action that he had not been
able to find the friends Hough wanted particularly. Then Allie felt
the incredible strangeness of being glad that Neale was not to find her
there--that Larry was not to throw his guns on Durade's crowd. There
might be a chance of her being liberated without violence.

This reaction left her weak and dazed for a while. Still she heard the
low voices of the gamesters, the slap of cards and clink of gold. Her
wits had gone from her ever since the mention of Neale. She floundered
in a whirl of thoughts and fears until gradually she recovered
self-possession. Whatever instinct or love or spirit had guided her
had done so rightly. She had felt Neale's presence in Benton. It was
stingingly sweet to realize that. Her heart swelled with pangs of
fullest measure. Surely he again believed her dead. Soon he would
come upon her--face to face--somewhere. He would learn she was
alive--unharmed--true to him with all her soul. Indians, renegade
Spaniards, Benton with its terrors, a host of EVIL men, not these nor
anything else could keep her from Neale forever. She had believed that
always, but never as now, in the clearness of this beautiful spiritual
insight. Behind her belief was someth