horse, too. He intended to ambush me and release his
companion, but I forced his hand; so it ain't what _I'd_ call murder.
Now about myself: Panfilo isn't the first man I've killed, and he may
not be the last, but I haven't lost any sleep over it, and I'd have
killed him just as quick if I hadn't been an officer. That's the kind
of man I am, and you may as well know it. I--"

"You are utterly ruthless."

"Yes'm!"

"You left him there without burial."

Law shrugged impatiently. "What's the difference? He's there to stay;
and he's just as dead under the stars as he'd be under the sand. I'd
rather lie facing the sky than the grass roots."

"But--you must have known it would get out, sometime. This puts both of
us in a very bad light."

"I know. But I stood on my cards. I'd have preferred to report it,
but--I'd keep still again, under the same circumstances. You seem to
consider that an insult. If it is, I don't know how to compliment you,
ma'am."

Alaire pondered this statement briefly before saying, "You have a
strange way of looking at the affair--a strange, careless, unnatural
way, it seems to me."

"Perhaps that's the fault of my training. I'm not what you would
consider a nice person; the death of Panfilo Sanchez means nothing
whatever to me. If you can grasp that fact, you'll see that your own
reputation weighed heavier in my mind than the lives of a dozen
Mexicans--or whites, for that matter. People know me for what I am,
and--that may have had something to do with my decision."

"I go anywhere, everywhere. No one has ever had the effrontery to
question my actions," Alaire told him, stiffly.

"And I don't aim to give 'em a chance." Dave was stubborn.

There was another interval of silence.

"You heard what Jose said. What are you going to do?"

Dave made a gesture of indifference. "It doesn't greatly matter. I'll
tell him the truth, perhaps."

Such an attitude was incomprehensible to Alaire and brought an
impatient frown to her brow. "You don't seem to realize that he will
try to revenge himself."

"You might warn him against any such foolishness. Jose has some sense."

The woman looked up curiously. "Don't you know how to be afraid?
Haven't you any fear?" she asked.

Dave's gray eyes were steady as he answered: "Yes'm! I'm afraid this
thing is going to spoil our friendship. I've been desperately afraid,
all along, that I might have hurt your reputation. Even now I'm afraid,
on your account, t