illed the girl; she
grew pale with comprehension of his mood. It meant that the sight of her
lying there had replaced the old madness with a new one. She was
unprepared for this furious outflaming of primitive admiration.

"You mustn't talk like that to me," she protested, as firmly as she
could.

He sensed her alarm. "Don't you be scared," he said, gently. "I didn't
mean to jar you. I only meant that I didn't know such women as you were
in the world. I'd trust you. You've got steady eyes. You'd stick by the
man that played his whole soul for you, I can see that. I come of pretty
good stock. I reckon that's why you mean so much to me. You get hold of
me in a way I can't explain."

"Why don't you fly?" she asked him. "Every minute you spend here
increases your danger. The men may return at any moment."

"That's funny, too," he answered, and a look of singular, musing
tenderness fell over his face. "I'd rather sit here with you and take my
chances."

"But you must not! You are imperiling your life for nothing."

"You're mistaken there. I'm getting something every minute--something
that will stay with me all my life. After I leave you it doesn't matter.
I came into the hills just naturally, the way the elk does. After that
girl reported me, life didn't count. Seeing you has changed me. It
matters a whole lot to me this minute, and when I leave you it's stormy
sunset for me, sure thing."

Alice gazed upon him with steady eyes, but her bosom rose and fell with
the emotion which filled her heart. She debated calling for Mrs. Adams,
but there was something in the droop of the outlaw's head, in the tone
of his voice, which arrested her. However sudden and frenzied his
admiration might seem to others, it was sincere and manly, of that she
was persuaded. Nevertheless, she was deeply perturbed.

"I wish you would go," she entreated at last, huskily. "I don't want to
see you taken. You have made yourself a criminal and I ought not to find
excuses for you, but I do. You're so young. It doesn't seem as if you
knew what you were doing. Why don't you ride away into the wild north
country and begin a new life somewhere? Can't you escape to Canada?"

He seized eagerly upon her suggestion. "Will you write to me if I do?"

"No, I cannot promise that."

"Why can't I play the ranger here and wait upon you till the men
return?"

"Because Professor Ward read that placard with me. He will know you
instantly. I wish you'd go. Gage