But let me explain that Steele
was chasing an outlaw who had shot him. Under ordinary circumstances he
would have searched your house. He would have been like a lion. He would
have torn the place down around our ears to get that rustler.
"But his action was so different from what I had expected, it amazed me.
Just now, when I was with him, I learned, I guessed, what stayed his
hand. I believe you ought to know."
"Know what?" she asked. How starry and magnetic her eyes! A woman's
divining intuition made them wonderful with swift-varying emotion.
They drew me on to the fatal plunge. What was I doing to her--to Vaughn?
Something bound my throat, making speech difficult.
"He's fallen in love with you," I hurried on in a husky voice. "Love at
first sight! Terrible! Hopeless! I saw it--felt it. I can't explain how
I know, but I do know.
"That's what stayed his hand here. And that's why I'm on his side. He's
alone. He has a terrible task here without any handicaps. Every man is
against him. If he fails, you might be the force that weakened him. So
you ought to be kinder in your thought of him. Wait before you judge him
further.
"If he isn't killed, time will prove him noble instead of vile.
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