came a letter I should have gotten months before. It told of her
trouble--importuned me to hurry to save her. Half frantic with
shame and fear, I got a marriage certificate and rushed back to her town.
She was gone--had been gone for weeks, and her disgrace was known.
Friends warned me to keep out of reach of her father. I trailed her--
found her. I married her. But too late!...She would not live with me.
She left me--I followed her west, but never found her."

Warren leaned forward a little and looked into Cameron's eyes, as
if searching there for the repentance that might make him less
deserving of a man's scorn.

Cameron met the gaze unflinchingly, and again began to speak:

"You know, of course, how men out here somehow lose old names, old
identities. It won't surprise you much to learn my name really isn't
Cameron, as I once told you."

Warren stiffened upright. It seemed that there might have been a
blank, a suspension, between his grave interest and some strange
mood to come.

Cameron felt his heart bulge and contract in his breast; all his
body grew cold; and it took tremendous effort for him to make his
lips form words.

"Warren, I'm the man you're hunting. I'm Burton. I was Nell's
lover!"

The old man rose and towered over Cameron, and then plunged down