it is impossible to save him."

"Don't say that," she whispered.

"You--you would be his wife?" he asked.

"No, that cannot be. I COULD not be his wife."

"You mean--he is married?"

"No, no! not that. You can't understand. I can never marry him--never!"

Bray struggled for a moment with the puzzle; his eyes went slowly
to Teresa. Then he suddenly understood why Jane Cable would not
marry the man she had come to find. He asked no questions of himself,
but Teresa would have been the result of every conjecture had he
done so.

"He might better be dead," he thought, his eyes hardening. "She's
found him out. Gad, I hope---" but he put it from him.

Graydon Bansemer did not die within the hour, nor that day. The
careful examination of the surgeons gave little additional hope;
it did, however, reveal the fact that no vital organ had been
destroyed or injured. The ball had torn a great hole in his left
side and had gone through the body. Probing was not necessary.
The flow of blood was frightful. There was a spark of life left on
which to build a frail hope, and they worked with new interest.

The attention of everyone was directed to this tragic struggle; the