r that is going on--can't you, won't you, understand?"

He was silent a moment. "Come in to the fire, then," he said at
length, "and we'll see what we can do. You've been on the wrong road
all night. There's no need of any secrets now on anybody's part, I
guess. But I'd rather turn you over to ten thousand devils than to the
man you're going back to tonight."

"Surely," she gasped, "you don't mean my own father?"

"You know the man I mean," was all he answered. Then he threw open the
cabin door and stood waiting for her to pass within.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CRAZY WOMAN WINS

It would have been idle for Laramie to deny to himself, as she stepped
without hesitation under his roof, that he loved her; or that he could
step in after her and close his door for her and for him--even for an
hour--against the storm and the world, without a thrill deeper than he
had ever felt.

He leaned his rifle against the cabin wall; a blanket had been hung
completely over the window and he let down two heavy bars across the
door. Kate, in front of the fire, followed him with her eyes. "Don't
mind this," he said, noticing her look. "The place is watched a good
deal. I couldn't afford too much of a surprise any time."

While he was searching for a lamp, her eyes ran quickly over the dark
interior, lighted fitfully as the driftwood, snapping on the stone
hearth, flared at times into a blaze. Kate herself, despite the doubts
and fears of her situation, was conscious of a strange feeling in being
under Laramie's roof--at one with him in so far as he could make her
feel so. Like a roll of fleeting film, strange pictures flashed across
her mind and she could not help thinking more and more about the man
and his stubborn isolation.

He had taken off his coat and was trying to light the lamp. She looked
narrowly at the face illumined by the spluttering flare of the wick as
he stood over it, looking down and adjusting the flame; he seemed, she
was thinking--for her at least--so easy to get along with--for everyone
else, so hard.

A pounding at the door gave her a start. Hawk was returning from the
barn where he had taken the horses. Laramie showed no surprise and
walked over to lift the double bar only after he had got the lamp to
burn to suit him. She felt startled again when Laramie in the simplest
way made the formidable outlaw, who now walked in, known to her. The
picture of him as he swung roughly inside from the wi