' show your tracks to his father. Well,
that's a risk he's given the rustlers. It happens that I know this
scar-face Smith. We've met before. Now it's easy to see from what Collie
heard that Smith is not trustin' Buster Jack. So, all underneath this
Jack Belllounds's game, there's forces workin' unbeknown to him, beyond
his control, an' sure to ruin him."

"I see. I see. By Heaven! Wade, nothing else but ruin seems possible!...
But suppose it works out his way!... What then? What of Collie?"

"Son, I've not got that far along in my reckonin'," replied Wade.

"But for my sake--think. If Buster Jack gets away with his trick--if he
doesn't hang himself by some blunder or fit of temper or spree--what
then of Collie?"

Wade could not answer this natural and inevitable query for the reason
that he had found it impossible of consideration.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," he replied.

"Wade, you've said that before. It helped me. But now I need more than a
few words from the Bible. My faith is low. I ... oh, I tried to pray
because Collie told me she had prayed! But what are prayers? We're
dealing with a stubborn, iron-willed old man who idolizes his son; we're
dealing with a crazy boy, absolutely self-centered, crafty, and vicious,
who'll stop at nothing. And, lastly, we're dealing with a girl who's so
noble and high-souled that she'll sacrifice her all--her life to pay her
debt. If she were really Bill Belllounds's daughter she'd _never_ marry
Jack, saying, of course, that he was not her brother.... Do you know
that it will _kill_ her, if she marries him?"

"Ahuh! I reckon it would," replied Wade, with his head bowed. Moore
roused his gloomy forebodings. He did not care to show this feeling or
the effect the cowboy's pleading had upon him.

"Ah! so you admit it? Well, then, what of Collie?"

"_If_ she marries him--she'll have to die, I suppose," replied Wade.

Then Wilson Moore leaped at his friend and with ungentle hands lifted
him, pushed him erect.

"Damn you, Wade! You're not square with me! You don't tell me all!" he
cried, hoarsely.

"Now, Wils, you're set up. I've told you all I know. I swear that."

"But you couldn't stand the thought of Collie dying for that brute! You
couldn't! Oh, I know. I can feel some things that are hard to tell. So,
you're either out of your head or you've something up your sleeve. It's
hard to explain how you affect me. One minute I'm ready to choke you
for that