one, not dreaming that I lived here. Would you ask me,
_because_ he was not a stranger, to revenge myself for a wrong of years
ago by refusing to him the help I would have given to any stranger? You
could not think that I would stoop to so base a revenge as to hand him
over to death when I would have given up no other man who stood in his
place? I would not turn a _dog_ away that came to me for help and
shelter. He came here, not knowing whose house this was--came to ask for
food and help because he was exhausted, famishing. It was as much a
surprise to him to find me here as it was to me to see who the man was
who asked me for shelter. And I promised it to him, and I kept my word.
He told me what he had done, and that the Vigilance Committee were on
his track. I've lived here long enough to know what that means! I would
not see the man who appealed to me to save him lawlessly murdered. He
has done wrong; he deserves punishment; but he does _not_ deserve the
fate they would have dealt to him."

"They'd have strung him up on that big tree outside your gate," said
Colonel Jeff, grim still, but relenting, "and serve him right!"

"I did not think he deserved death," rejoined Barbara, firmly; "I
risked--more than my life"--her voice quivered for the first time--"to
save him."

"You did," he said; "you risked having your good name dragged in the
gutter, for the sake of that worthless scamp."

"I risked more than that," she returned in a lower tone.

"More than that?" He shot a keen, questioning glance at her from under
his dark, heavy brows.

"Yes--I risked--and have I lost?--_your faith_?"

He paused a moment before he answered: "Barbara, when a man loves as I
do, he loves to the end of life--and after!"

A light kindled in her steadfast, questioning eyes.

"Then I have not lost your love, Rick?"

"I love you always."

"But--your faith?" she urged. "One is worthless to me without the
other."

"Do you say that my love is worthless, Barbara?"

"If it is given without your trust, it is the setting without the
jewel. _Trust_ me, Rick--or, _leave me_!"

"I trust you, my love," he replied, catching her hands and holding them
fast and close in his strong clasp. "Who could look in those eyes of
yours and doubt that you're true and pure as truth itself? But, my
darling, you've been foolish--with a woman's noble folly! Rash and
reckless--with an angel's courage! You have ventured too much--in such a
cause. These mat