y to these people that which she had to say of
Buck Thornton. She switched the conversation abruptly, asking them to
tell her of Hill's Corners.

She knew something of the place already. Mr. Templeton had told her a
great deal when insistently urging her not to do the thing she had
determined to do and she had thought that he exaggerated merely in order
to turn her aside from her purpose. She had even heard far-reaching
rumours of the border town in Crystal City, where her own home had been
for the five years since the deaths of her parents. These rumours, too,
she had supposed inflated as rumours will be when they are bad and have
travelled far. Now it was a little anxiously that she asked for further
information, and not altogether because she sought some new topic.

"She's Henry Pollard's niece, Mary," Smith said rather hurriedly. The
girl glanced at him sharply. There was something in his tone which told
her that he was warning his wife, cautioning her to speak guardedly of
Pollard or not at all.

When, an hour later, she went to bed, she lay long sleepless, wondering,
nervously dreading the morrow. For these people who should know gave
Hill's Corners the same name that Mr. Templeton had given it, the same
name it bore as far as Crystal City and beyond. It was one of those far
removed towns which are the last stand of the lawless, the ultimate
breastwork before the final ditch into which in his hour the gunfighter
has finally gone down. Desperate characters, men wanted in two states
and perhaps in many more, flocked here where they found the one chance
to live out their riotous lives riotously. Here they could "straddle"
the line, and when wanted upon one side slip to the other. And
hereabouts, for very many miles in all directions, the big cattle men,
the small ranchers, the "little fellows," all slept "with their eyes
open and their gunlocks oiled."

But, she tried to tell herself, Henry Pollard had sent for her, he was
her own mother's brother, he would not have had her come here if it were
not safe. He had written clearly enough, had told her in his letter that
he could not leave the Corners, that he must have the money, that there
were hold-up men in the country who would not hesitate to rob the stage
if they learned that he had five thousand dollars in it, that she could
bring the bills which Templeton would have ready for her and that there
would be no suspicion, no danger for her. And she would believe he