lds. But
to think you can stand there--an' talk sweet an' pleasant--with no idee
of manhood!... Let her come now--or--or I'm a-goin' for my gun!"

"Roberts, haven't you a wife--children?"

"Yes, I have," shouted Roberts, huskily. "An' that wife would disown me
if I left Joan Randle to you. An' I've got a grown girl. Mebbe some day
she might need a man to stand between her an' such as you, Jack Kells!"

All Roberts' pathos and passion had no effect, unless to bring out by
contrast the singular and ruthless nature of Jack Kells.

"Will you hit the trail?"

"No!" thundered Roberts.

Until then Joan Randle had been fascinated, held by the swift
interchange between her friend and enemy. But now she had a convulsion
of fear. She had seen men fight, but never to the death. Roberts
crouched like a wolf at bay. There was a madness upon him. He shook like
a rippling leaf. Suddenly his shoulder lurched--his arm swung.

Joan wheeled away in horror, shutting her eyes, covering her ears,
running blindly. Then upon her muffled hearing burst the boom of a gun.

3

Joan ran on, stumbling over rocks and brush, with a darkness before her
eyes, the terror in her soul. She was out in the cedars when someone
grasped her from behind. She felt the hands as the coils of a snake.
Then she was ready to faint, but she must not faint. She struggled away,
stood free. It was the man Bill who had caught her. He said something
that was unintelligible. She reached for the snag of a dead cedar and,
leaning there, fought her weakness, that cold black horror which seemed
a physical thing in her mind, her blood, her muscles.

When she recovered enough for the thickness to leave her sight she saw
Kells coming, leading her horse and his own. At sight of him a strange,
swift heat shot through her. Then she was confounded with the thought of
Roberts.

"Ro--Roberts?" she faltered.

Kells gave her a piercing glance. "Miss Randle, I had to take the fight
out of your friend," he said.

"You--you--Is he--dead?"

"I just crippled his gun arm. If I hadn't he would have hurt somebody.
He'll ride back to Hoadley and tell your folks about it. So they'll know
you're safe."

"Safe!" she whispered.

"That's what I said, Miss Randle. If you're going to ride out into the
border--if it's possible to be safe out there you'll be so with me."

"But I want to go home. Oh, please let me go!"

"I couldn't think of it."

"Then--what will you--do with me