tt of a revolver beneath his
coat, and for one second he who had dared such utterance looked on
death. Then the hard lines about the man's mouth softened, the fingers
clutching the weapon relaxed, and Hampton laid one opened hand upon the
minister's shrinking shoulder.

"Sit down," he said, his voice unsteady from so sudden a reaction.
"Perhaps--perhaps I don't exactly understand."

For a full minute they sat thus looking at each other through the fast
dimming light, like two prize-fighters meeting for the first time
within the ring, and taking mental stock before beginning their
physical argument. Hampton, with a touch of his old audacity of
manner, was first to break the silence.

"So you think I am a damned fool. Well, we are in pretty fair accord
as to that fact, although no one before has ever ventured to state it
quite so clearly in my presence. Perhaps you will kindly explain?"

The preacher wet his dry lips with his tongue, forgetting himself when
his thoughts began to crystallize into expression.

"I regret having spoken as I did," he began. "Such language is not my
custom. I was irritated because of your haste in rejecting my advances
before hearing the proposition I came to submit. I certainly respect
your evident desire to be of assistance to this young woman, nor have I
the slightest intention of interfering between you. Your act in
preserving her life was a truly noble one, and your loyalty to her
interests since is worthy of all Christian praise. But I believe I
have a right to ask, what do you intend for the future? Keep her with
you? Drag her about from camp to camp? Educate her among the
contaminating poison of gambling-holes and dance-halls? Is her home
hereafter to be the saloon and the rough frontier hotel? her ideal of
manhood the quarrelsome gambler, and of womanhood a painted harlot?
Mr. Hampton, you are evidently a man of education, of early refinement;
you have known better things; and I have come to you seeking merely to
aid you in deciding this helpless young woman's destiny. I thought, I
prayed, you would be at once interested in that purpose, and would
comprehend the reasonableness of my position."

Hampton sat silent, gazing out of the window, his eyes apparently on
the lights now becoming dimly visible in the saloon opposite. For a
considerable time he made no move, and the other straightened back in
his chair watching him.

"Well!" he ventured at last, "what is you