"It is now or never," he gritted
through clenched teeth. "Now, and alone. She won't face the situation
squarely. It is woman's way, calmy to ignore the issue, to push it
aside as the ill of a future day."
She had said that he was right, and ethically, he knew that he was
right--but the fact of the deed remained. His hand had sped a soul to
its God.
Why?
To save the woman he loved. No jury on earth would hold him guilty.
He would surrender himself and stand trial. Then came the memory of
what Tex had told him of the machinations of local politics. He had no
wish to contribute his life as campaign material for a county election.
The other course was to run--to remain, as he now was, a fugitive, if
not from justice, at least from the hand of the law. This course would
mean that both must live always within the menace of the
shadow--unless, to save her from this life of haunting fear, he
renounced her.
His eyes sought the forbidding sweep of the bad lands, strayed to the
sluggish waters of the Missouri, and beyond, where the black buttes of
the Judith Range reared their massive shapes in the distance. Suddenly
a mighty urge welled up within him. He would not renounce her! She
was his! This was life--the life that, to him, had been as a sealed
book--the fighting life of the boundless open places.
Pages:
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307