d.

He must make no mistake by erring on the side of passion nor must he,
with just vengeance in his grasp, let it slip because a woman had
beguiled him with lies and tears.

Finally the brother-in-law went over to where Sally was still sitting
with her eyes fixed on him in a dumb tensity of waiting.

"Ye compelled me ter harken ter ye," he said, "but I hain't got no
answer ready fer ye yit. Hit all depends on whether ye're tellin' me
ther truth or jest lyin' ter save Ken's neck, and thet needs ter lie
studied. Ye kin sleep hyar ternight anyhow, an' termorrer when I've
talked with ther state lawyer I'll give ye my answer--but not afore
then."

Will Turk did not sleep that night. His thoughts were embattled with the
conflict of many emotions, and morning found him hollow-eyed.

In its sum total, this man's use of his power had been unquestionable
abuse. Terrorization and the prostitution of law had been its keystone
and arch, but he had not yet surrendered his self-respect, because he
thought of himself as a strong man charged with responsibility and
accountable to his own conscience. Now he remembered the Ken Thornton
who had once been almost a brother. Old affections had curdled into
wormwood bitterness, but if the woman told the truth, her narration
altered all that. Somehow he could feel no resentment at all against
her. If _she_ had killed John, she had acted only at the spur of
desperation, and she had been feminine weakness revolting against brutal
strength. As he pondered his determination wavered and swung to and fro,
pendulum fashion. If she were lying--and he would hardly blame her for
that, either--he would be her dupe to show mercy and likewise, if she
were lying, mercy would be weakness.

Sally Turk rested no more peacefully than he that night, and when in
the gray of dawn she looked searchingly into his face across the kitchen
table, she could read nothing from the stony emptiness that kept guard
over his emotions.

A little later she rode at his saddle skirt in a crucial suffering of
suspense, and whenever she cast an agonized glance at him she saw her
companion's face staring stiffly ahead, flintily devoid of any
self-revelation.

Once she ventured to demand, "Whatever ye decides, Will, will them
co'te-house fellers heed ye, does ye reckon?"

For a moment Turk glanced sidewise with narrowed eyes.

"I don't seek ter persuade them fellers," he made brief and pointed
reply, "I orders 'em."

A