"Miss Sampson," I began again, after taking a long, deep breath, "I
ought to tell you one thing more about Steele."

"Well, go on."

"Doesn't he strike you now as being the farthest removed from a ranting,
brutal Ranger?"

"I confess he was at least a gentleman."

"Rangers don't allow anything to interfere with the discharge of their
duty. He was courteous after you defamed him. He respected your wish. He
did not break up the dance.

"This may not strike you particularly. 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.