oubt or question, Madam, if
you force me to it, you shall have your answer in that way. I'm
not a boy to be fooled with, to be denied. I rule out there, over
free and thrall. There's where you're going. Your other jailer
told you the truth!"

She looked at him slowly and fully now, the color fading from her
face. Her soul had touched the steel in his own soul. She knew
that, once aroused, this man would hesitate at nothing. Crowded
beyond his limit, there was no measure he would not employ. Other
means must be employed with such a nature as his. She temporized.

"Listen. You are a man of family and traditions,--my late guardian
told me. You have been chosen to a position of trust, you are one
of the lawmakers of your own state. Do you ever stop to reflect
what you are doing, how you are abandoning yourself, your own
traditions, your own duties, when you speak as you have been
speaking to me? I had committed no crime. I am held by no process
of law. You take risks."

"I know. I have thrown it all away in the balance. If these
things were known, I would be ruined." He spoke dully and evenly,
indifferently.

"I lack many things, Madam," he resumed at length. "I do not lack
honesty even with myself, and I do not lie even to a woman. That's
the trouble. I have not lied to you. Come now, let us understand.
I suppose it's because I've been alone so much. Civilization does
not trouble us much back there. These are my people--they love
me--I hold them in my hand so long as I live up to their standards.
Maybe I've thrown them away, right now,--my people."

"You are not living up to your standards."

"No, but I can not make you understand me. I can not make you
understand that the great thing of life isn't the foolish ambition
of a man to get into a state legislature, to make laws, to see them
enforced. It isn't the original purpose of man to get on in
politics or business, or social regard. Man is made to love some
woman. Woman is made to be loved by some man. That's life. It's
all of it. I know there's nothing else."

"I have heard my share of such talk, perhaps, in this or that
corner of the world," she answered, with scorn. "Excellent, for
you to force it upon a woman who is helpless!"

"Talk doesn't help, but deeds will. You're going along with me. I
would swear you belonged to me, if need be. As, by the Almighty
God! I intend you some day shall. All the officers of the law are
s