"--he had struck me down in the dark?" added Aldous, as she hesitated.
"Well, he would like to do just that, Joanne." Unconsciously her name had
slipped from him. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to
call her Joanne now. "Is it necessary for me to tell you what this man
Quade is--why he was looking through the window?"

She shuddered.

"No--no--I understand!"

"Only partly," continued Aldous, his face white and set. "It is necessary
that you should know more than you have guessed, for your own protection.
If you were like most other women I would not tell you the truth, but would
try to shield you from it. As it is you should know. There is only one
other man in the Rocky Mountains more dangerous than Bill Quade. He is
Culver Rann, up at Tête Jaune. They are partners--partners in crime, in
sin, in everything that is bad and that brings them gold. Their influence
among the rougher elements along the line of rail is complete. They are so
strongly entrenched that they have put contractors out of business because
they would not submit to blackmail. The few harmless police we have
following the steel have been unable to touch them. They have cleaned up
hundreds of thousands, chiefly in three things--blackmail, whisky, and
women. Quade is the viler of the two. He is like a horrible beast. Culver
Rann makes me think of a sleek and shining serpent. But it is this man
Quade----"

He found it almost impossible to go on with Joanne's blue eyes gazing so
steadily into his.

"--whom we have made our enemy," she finished for him.