er loneliness began to be
insupportable.

Toward sunset she put on her hat and started for the post-office. In
the meantime, Dicksie, at home, had called McCloud up and told him she
was coming down for the night. He immediately cancelled his plans for
going West, and when Marion returned at dusk she found him with
Dicksie at the cottage. The three had supper. Afterward Dicksie and
McCloud went out for a walk, and Marion was alone in the house when
the shop door opened and Whispering Smith walked in. It was dusk.

"Don't light the lamps, Marion," he said, sitting down on a
counter-stool as he took off his hat. "I want to talk to you just a
minute, if you don't mind. You know what has happened. I am called on
now to go after Sinclair. I have tried to avoid it, but my hand has
been forced. To-day I've been placing horses. I am going to ride
to-night with the warrant. I have given him a start of twenty-four
hours, hoping he may get out of the country. To stay here means only
death to him in the end, and, what is worse, the killing of more and
innocent men. But he won't leave the country; do you think he will?"

"Oh, I do not know! I am afraid he will not."

"I do not think I have ever hesitated before at any call of this kind;
nor at what such a call will probably sometime mean; but this man I
have known since we were boys."

"If I had never seen him!"

"That brings up another point that has been worrying me all day. I
could not help knowing what you have had to go through in this
country. It is a tough country for any woman. Your people and mine
were always close together and I have felt bound to do what I could
to----"

"Don't be afraid to say it--make my path easier."

"Something like that, though there's been little real doing. What this
situation in which Sinclair is now placed may still mean to you I do
not know, but I would not add a straw to the weight of your troubles.
I came to-night to ask a plain question. If he doesn't leave the
country I have got to meet him. You know what, in all human
probability, that will mean. From such a meeting only one of us can
come back. Which shall it be?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand you--do you ask me this question? How
can I know which it shall be? What is it you mean?"

"I mean I will not take his life in a fight--if it comes to that--if
you would rather he should come back."

A sob almost refused an answer to him. "How can you ask me so terrible
a question?"