the game so far," he snarled at Henley, "but
it's not ended. You'll hear from me."

"I'll tell you one thing, Hank," Henley said, as he glared at the man,
"you are leaving here now, but if I ever meet you face to face in town,
or anywhere else, I'll kill you as sure as there's a God. I've said it,
and I mean it--I'll kill you as I would a snake."

Henley and Dixie stood in silence and watched him as he entered the wood
and strode farther into its depths. They heard the cracking of dry twigs
under his feet as he steadily receded, the sound of his untoward
progress growing fainter and fainter in the distance.

"I'll be sorry to the day of my death that I didn't kill him," Henley
panted, the wild fury unabated in his voice, face, and eyes. "Why, he
was treating you like a dog; he actually proposed, actually dared to
hint that his dirty money--my God! and I let him walk off on his two
feet."

"I know, I know," Dixie muttered, soothingly, and she forced a smile as
she looked at the revolver in her hand, "and oh, Alfred, I'm just girl
enough to be glad you come as you did, and even to see it work you up
like it has; but at a time like this a woman must act and think for a
man when he is all wrought up and half out of his head. I couldn't
prevent what he done. He was waiting for me at the end of the street and
insisted on walking with me. I begged him to go back, but he was talking
so loud and rough that I was afraid folks would make remarks. I hated to
call for help; I'm neither sugar nor salt, and am able to care for
myself. But I'd never seen him as drunk as that before, and, well, if
you hadn't come--"

She shuddered convulsively. He looked at her wrist, which she kept
touching with her handkerchief; the skin was broken and the flesh
bruised where Bradley had clutched it.

"My God!" Henley took it gently in his throbbing hands and looked at it
with glaring eyes, "and I let him walk away! He's free now, but, as
there is a God overhead, I'll--"

"No, stop, listen--hear me, Alfred!" Dixie entreated, allowing her hand
to rest passively in his. "There are some things you men make more of
than us women. I reckon it's your natures to be that way. Now, me 'n you
have got to settle this thing for good and all right here and now, for
if I have to go home to-night with the fear that there is to be
bloodshed on my account I'd be more miserable than I ever was. Last
night, Alfred, after I left you at the lot-gate, I went home