significance had just occurred
to him. But he was not long at a loss.

"She's going to find it out sooner or later. I tell you she knows now
there's something wrong out here. She's got eyes. Mark what I say."

"Ray has changed, I know. But she hasn't any idea yet that her daddy's
a boss rustler. Ray's concerned about what she calls my duty as mayor.
Also I think she's not satisfied with my explanations in regard to
certain property."

Lawson halted in his restless walk and leaned against the stone
mantelpiece. He had his hands in his pockets. He squared himself as if
this was his last stand. He looked desperate, but on the moment showed
an absence of his usual nervous excitement.

"Longstreth, that may well be true," he said. "No doubt all you say is
true. But it doesn't help me. I want the girl. If I don't get her--I
reckon we'll all go to hell!"

He might have meant anything, probably meant the worst. He certainly
had something more in mind. Longstreth gave a slight start, barely
perceptible, like the switch of an awakening tiger. He sat there, head
down, stroking his mustache. Almost Duane saw his thought. He had long
experience in reading men under stress of such emotion. He had no means
to vindicate his judgment, but his conviction was that Longstreth right
then and there decided that the thing to do was to kill Lawson.
For Duane's part he wondered that Longstreth had not come to such a
conclusion before. Not improbably the advent of his daughter had put
Longstreth in conflict with himself.

Suddenly he threw off a somber cast of countenance, and he began to
talk. He talked swiftly, persuasively, yet Duane imagined he was talking
to smooth Lawson's passion for the moment. Lawson no more caught the
fateful significance of a line crossed, a limit reached, a decree
decided than if he had not been present. He was obsessed with himself.
How, Duane wondered, had a man of his mind ever lived so long and gone
so far among the exacting conditions of the Southwest? The answer was,
perhaps, that Longstreth had guided him, upheld him, protected him. The
coming of Ray Longstreth had been the entering-wedge of dissension.

"You're too impatient," concluded Longstreth. "You'll ruin any chance
of happiness if you rush Ray. She might be won. If you told her who I am
she'd hate you for ever. She might marry you to save me, but she'd hate
you. That isn't the way. Wait. Play for time. Be different with her.
Cut out your drinki