nce, her face white, her figure erect. When he
finished she laid her hand on his forehead, as if in tribute to the
manhood that had borne him through such inhuman torture, and the loyalty
that had been the cause of its visitation. Then she went to the window,
where she stood a long time looking over the sad sweep of broken
country, the fringe of twilight on it in somber shadow.

It was not so dark when she returned to her place at his bedside, but he
could see that she had been weeping in the silent pain that rises like
a poison distillation from the heart.

"It draws the best into it and breaks them," she said in great
bitterness, speaking as to herself. "It isn't worth the price!"

"Never mind it, Vesta," he soothed, putting out his hand. She took it
between her own, and held it, and a great comfort came to him in her
touch.

"I'm going to sell the cattle as fast as I can move them, and give it
up, Duke," she said, calling him by that name with the easy
unconsciousness of a familiar habit, although she never had addressed
him so before.

"You're not going away from here whipped, Vesta," he said with a
firmness that gave new hope and courage to her sad heart. "I'll be out
of this in a day or two, then we'll see about it--about several things.
You're not going to leave this country whipped; neither am I."

She sat in meditation, her face to the window, presenting the soft turn
of her cheek and chin to Lambert's view. She was too fine and good for
that country, he thought, too good for the best that it ever could offer
or give, no matter how generously the future might atone for the
hardships of the past. It would be better for her to leave it, he wanted
her to leave it, but not with her handsome head bowed in defeat.

"I think if you were to sift the earth and screen out its meanest, they
wouldn't be a match for the people around here," she said. "There
wouldn't be a bit of use taking this outrage up with the authorities;
Kerr and his gang would say it was a joke, and get away with it, too."

"I wouldn't go squealing to the county authorities, Vesta, even if I
knew I'd get results. This is something a man has to square for himself.
Maybe they intended it for a joke, too, but it was a little rougher than
I'm used to."

"There's no doubt what their intention was. You can understand my
feelings toward them now, Duke; maybe I'll not seem such a savage."

"I've got a case with you against them all, Vesta."

He m