The Border Legion

er ca?on, and never did she let it be possible for Kells to see her eyes until she knew b

times to follow on foot. It seemed miles across that wilderness of stone. Foxes and wolves trotted over open places, watching stealthily. All around dark mountain peaks stood up

ountains. Joan had scarcely any idea of direction. She was completely turned around and lost. This spot was the wildest and most beautiful she had ever seen. A ca?on headed here. It was narrow, low-walled, and luxuriant with grass an

pen in front. It had not been built very long; some of the log ends still showed yellow. It d

atures. Kells had dismounted and approached her

t too tired to g

d down! Without a kick!" he exclaimed

e are

n know of it. And they are-attache

felt the inten

replied, slowly, "t

unt will

d in gold right now... Maybe la

istered his covert, scarcely veile

He'll never, ne

," replied Ke

might have been and probably was the most depraved of outcast men; but the presence of a girl like her, however it affected him, must also have brought up associations of a time when by family and breeding and habit he had been infinitely different.

y gallant rob

as eying her up and down; and he moved closer, p

were so tall. You'r

'm very

ll, supple, strong; you're like a Nez Perce girl I knew

suppose I'll have to stand it from you. But I didn't ex

? Where'd you

I made it up-thou

l use.... And what's your name-your

ternal being, but outwardly she never so m

ling hands on her shoulders and

r it, steeled herself, wrought upon all that was sensitive in her; and now she prayed, and swiftly looked up into his eyes. They were windows of a gray hell.

ow why I brou

y. "You want to ransom me for gold.... And I'm afra

an to do to you," h

you didn't say.... I haven't thought.... But you won't hurt me

changed, grew darker.

rit she essayed to slip out of h

ld are

hat Joan looked anywhere near her age. Ofte

t the truth. It was a lie that did not fa

jaculated in amaz

in scornfully and

enty-five-at least twenty-two. Seventeen, with that sh

encounter left her weak, but once from under his eyes, certain that she had carried her point, she quickly regained her poise. There might be, probably would be, infin

em had obliterated it. Below the circle of bulletholes, scrawled in rude letters with a lead-pencil, was the name "Gulden." How little, a few nights back, when Jim Cleve had menaced Joan with the names of Kells and Gulden, had she imagined they were actual men she was to meet and fear! And here she was the prisoner of one of them. She would ask Kells who and what this Gulden was. The log cabin was merely a shed, without fireplace or window, and the floor was a covering of bal

yond all calculation of value. And they included towel, soap, toothbrush, mirror and comb and brush, a red scarf, and gloves. It occurred to her how seldom she carried that bag on her saddle, and, thinking back, referred the fact to accident, and then with honest amusement owned that the motive might have been

ou get suppe

at had been hastily thrown together. He looked up at her-from

you're a p

est subtlety or suggestion; and if he had been the devil himself it woul

ut please don't tell me

he yielded to. He said very little, but he looked at her often. And he had little periods of abstraction. The situation was novel, strange to him. Sometimes Joan read his mind and sometimes he was an enigma. But she divined when he was thinking what a picture she looked there, on her knees before

nger that tortured her; but she knew she was dreaming and would soon wake up. Kells was almost imperceptibly changing. The amiability of his face seemed to have stiffened. The only time

She felt an unreasonable resentment toward him, knowing she was to blame, but blaming him for her plight. Then suddenly she thought of her uncle, of home, of her kindly old aunt who always worried so about her. Indeed, there was cause to worry. She felt sorrier for them than for herself.

crying?" he a

n retorted. Her wet eyes, as she

op

who've been father and mother to me-since I was a baby. I wasn't cr

help matte

etful, but the girl with her deep and cunning

one? Did you ever have

ed away int

! She built up a bright camp-fire. There was an abundance of wood. She dreaded the darkness and the night. Besides, the air was growing chilly. So, arranging her saddle and blankets near the fire, she composed herself in a comfortable seat to await Kells's return and developmen

r grief?" he asked, g

she r

he kept this up until Joan divined that he was not so much interested in what he apparently wished to learn as he was in her presence, her voice, her personality. She sensed in him loneliness, hunger for the sound of a voice. She had heard her uncle speak of the loneliness of lonely camp-fires and how all men working or hiding or lo

rts over there at Hoadley?"

es

w m

d, with a laugh, "but admirer

re's no o

dly-

ept here in this lonesome p

walls and the blackness. So silent and sweet! I love the stars. They speak to me. And the wind in the spruces. Hear it.... Very low, mournful! That whispers to me-to-morrow I'd like it here if I had no worry. I've never grown up yet. I explore and climb t

l to live out here on

rom other girls. Yo

She put a rope round my n

rop

r, a hangman's noose

A good

ack heart-bad as I am!" he excl

d transformed, somber as death. She could no

-only violent, perhaps, or wil

from his hand. In the gloom of the camp-fire

as young, ambitious, wild. I stole. I ran away-came West in 'fifty-one to the gold-fields in California. There I became a prospector, miner, gambler, robber-and road-agent. I had evil in me, as all men have, and those wild years brought it out. I had no chance. Evil and gold and blood-they are one and th

y for you. I don't believe it all. What-what black crime haunts you? Oh

errible th

t have you done to me? One more day-and I'll be mad to do

s and quivering lips, as overcome by his halting confession of on

d. "But you frighten me-so! I am all-all alone w

hing in Joan's sight. A marvelous intuition born of that hour warned her of Kells's subjection to the beast in him, even while, with all the manhood left to him, he still battled against it. Her girlish sweetness and innocence had availed nothing, except mock him with the ghost of dead me