outlaw, and spoke with unleashed hate. He
flinched at the change.

"I was skeered o' ye back thar on the piazzy yist'-day, an' I lied to
ye, kase I was skeered. I wasn't a-likin' the look in them pig eyes o'
your'n. An' I was a-feared o' Gran'pap's hearin' how I reported the
still. Wall, now I hain't skeered no more. I promised ye yer answer at
the gate. We'll move over thar, an' I'll keep my promise."

Before he could guess her purpose, before he could shift the rifle
from the hollow of his arm, the fingers of Plutina's right hand had
slipped within the open bodice. The Colt's flashed in the sunlight.
The level barrel lay motionless, in deadly readiness. For the girl,
though not yet quite sure, was almost sure that she would kill Dan
Hodges.

The idea had not come to her until this meeting. In all the racking
hours of thought, this simple solution of the difficulty had never
entered her mind. Now, at its coming, she welcomed it with infinite
relief. It offered a means of escape so simple and so sure--escape for
herself and for those she loved. It was the touch of the man that had
wrought the miracle of revolt. She had felt herself polluted by the
contact. On the instant, the hypocrisy of cajoling was no longer
possible. But there was more in the effect than that. The savagery of
the outlaw aroused the savagery in her. She became, in the twinkling
of an eye, the primitive woman. There was little in the sentiment of
her people to dam the outburst. Her kin had followed the lex talionis.
They had killed their fellows for the sake of their proper pride. The
blood-feud was familiar to her, and she knew no shame in it. Why
should she not slay this creature who outraged her self-respect, who
threatened her every hope? Her finger on the trigger of the revolver
tensed ever so slightly.

The man felt the vibration of her impulse and cringed. He was in a
daze before this violence of attack, where he had expected only supine
yielding. In his creed, the beating of women marked manliness. The
drabs he had caressed crept and fawned under his blows, like whipped
curs. He could not realize this challenge by the girl with his own
method of might. But he saw clearly enough through the haze of fear
that the blue barrel was trained exactly upon him, that the slim hand
held it rigid, and he knew that, in this instant, he was very, very
close to death. The red of his face changed to a mottled purple. He
felt himself trembling.

Plutina