it. Maybe
days, maybe weeks, maybe whole months. But I've passed the top of the
hill, and I know I'm ridin' down the slope. Pretty soon I'll finish the
trail. But what little time I've got left is worth more'n everything
that went before. I can see my life behind me and the things before like
a cold mornin' light was over it all--you know before the sun begins to
beat up the waves of heat and the mist gets tanglin' in front of your
eyes? You know when you can look right across a thirty mile valley and
name the trees, a'most the other side? That's the way I can see now.
They ain't no feelin' about it. My body is all plumb paralyzed. I jest
see and know--that's all.

"And what I see of you and Dan--if you ever marry--is plain--hell! Love
ain't the only thing they is between a man and a woman. They's something
else. I dunno what it is. But it's a sort of a common purpose; it's
havin' both pairs of feet steppin' out on the same path. That's what it
is. But your trail would go one way and Dan's would go another, and
pretty soon your love wouldn't be nothin' but a big wind blowin' between
two mountains--and all it would do would be to freeze up the blood in
your hearts."

"I seen all that, while Dan was sittin' at the foot of the bed. Not that
I don't want him here. When I see him I see the world the way it was
when I was under thirty. When there wasn't nothin' I wouldn't try once,
when all I wanted was a gun and a hoss and a song to keep me from
tradin' with kings. No, it ain't goin' to be easy for me when Dan goes
away. But what's my tag-end of life compared with yours? You got to be
given a chance; you got to be kept away from Dan. That's why I told him,
finally, that I thought I could get along without him."

"Whether or not you save me," she answered, "you signed a death warrant
for at least two men when you told him that."

"Two men? They's only one he's after--and Buck Daniel has had a long
start. He can't be caught!"

"That Marshal Calkins is here to-night. He saw Buck at Rafferty's, and
he talked about it in the hearing of Dan at the table. I watched Dan's
face. You may read the past and see the future, Dad, but I know Dan's
face. I can read it as the sailor reads the sea. Before to-morrow night
Buck Daniels will be dead; and Dan's hands will be red."

She dropped her head against the bedclothes and clasped her fingers over
the bright hair.

When she could speak again she raised her head and went on in the sa