his feet. In imagination he still felt the touch of her warm fingers,
soft as a caress, the thrill of her hair as it had brushed his cheek
when she had stooped over him. The drag of sex was upon him and had set
him trembling strangely.

"Why don't you go?" she cried softly.

He snatched himself away.

But before he had reached the door he came back in two strides.
Startled and unnerved, she waited on him. He caught both her hands in
his, and opened them wide so that she was drawn toward him by the swing
of the motion. There for an instant he stood, looking down into her eyes
by the faint light that sifted through the window upon her.

"What--what do you want?" she demanded tremulously, emotion flooding her
in waves.

"Why are you saving me, girl?"

"I--don't know. I've told you why."

"I'm a villain, by your way of it, yet you save my life even while you
think me a skunk. I can't thank you. What's the use of trying?"

He looked down into her eyes, and that gaze did more than thank her. It
told her he would never forget and never let her forget. How it happened
she could not afterward remember, but she found herself in his arms, his
kiss tingling through her blood like wine.