can beat me, I'm sure."

"No, he can't!" she cried impulsively, "because he said he couldn't. That
was why he couldn't get you--" she stopped, horrified at what she had
said. Then, determined to make the best of it, and knowing that excuses
or apologies would make it worse, she hurriedly continued: "He says that
you are so fair and square that he just will not take any advantage of
you. He likes square people, and he isn't afraid to say it, either."

The Orphan sat silently for half a minute, thinking hard, while Mrs.
Shields looked anxiously at him. Here was peace and happiness. The
sheriff could come and go as he pleased, and every good citizen was
his friend. He had a home--a pleasant contrast to the man who spent his
nights under the stars, not sure of his life from day to day, hounded
from point to point, having no friend, no one who cared for him; he
was just an outlaw, and damned by his fellow men. Then he remembered what
Helen had said before leaving him at the coach. She had faith in him, for
she had told him so--and she would not lie. Her kindness and faith in
him, an outcast, had been with him in his thoughts ever since, and he had
felt the loneliness of his life heavily from that day. He felt a strange
gnawing at his heart and he slowly raised his eyes to her, eagerly
drinking in her radiant beauty, a beauty wonderful to him, for never
before had he seen a beautiful woman. To him women had always been
repellent--and no wonder. He scorned those usually found in the cow
towns. At their best they were only ornaments, and to The Orphan's
mind ornaments were trash. But now he suddenly awoke to the fact that
she was more, that she was all that was worth fighting for, that she
was the missing half of his consciousness. And she herself had given him
heart for the fight, slight as it was, for he was like a drowning man
clutching at straws. But still his cynicism swayed him and made him
fear that it would be a hopeless battle. Again he thought of her brother
and suddenly envied him, and the liking he had felt for the sheriff
became strong and clear. Shields was a white man, just and square.

He slowly raised his eyes to Mrs. Shields and smiled, which caused her
look of anxiety to clear.

"The Sheriff is the whitest man in this whole country," he said quietly,
a trace of his mood being in his voice, "and only for that did I play
square with him. In confidence, just to let you know that I am not as
bad as people say,