his face in the
light. I could never mistake his eyes."

"Did he know you saw him?"

"I am not positive, but I think so. Oh, he must have known! I was
standing full in the light. I had entered the door, then purposely
stepped out. His face showed from around a corner, and swiftly flashed
out of sight."

Madeline was tremblingly conscious that Stewart underwent a
transformation. She saw as well as felt the leaping passion that changed
him.

"Call your friends--get them in here!" he ordered, tersely, and wheeled
toward the door.

"Stewart, wait!" she said.

He turned. His white face, his burning eyes, his presence now charged
with definite, fearful meaning, influenced her strangely, weakened her.

"What will you do?" she asked.

"That needn't concern you. Get your party in here. Bar the windows and
lock the doors. You'll be safe."

"Stewart! Tell me what you intend to do."

"I won't tell you," he replied, and turned away again.

"But I will know," she said. With a hand on his arm she detained him.
She saw how he halted--felt the shock in him as she touched him. "Oh, I
do know. You mean to fight!"

"Well, Miss Hammond, isn't it about time?" he asked. Evidently he
overcame a violent passion for instant action. There was weariness,
dignity, even reproof in his question. "The fact of that Mexican's
presence here in your house ought to prove to you the nature of the
case. These vaqueros, these guerrillas, have found out you won't stand
for any fighting on the part of your men. Don Carlos is a sneak, a
coward, yet he's not afraid to hide in your own house. He has learned
you won't let your cowboys hurt anybody. He's taking advantage of it.
He'll rob, burn, and make off with you. He'll murder, too, if it falls
his way. These Greasers use knives in the dark. So I ask--isn't it about
time we stop him?"

"Stewart, I forbid you to fight, unless in self-defense. I forbid you."

"What I mean to do is self-defense. Haven't I tried to explain to you
that just now we've wild times along this stretch of border? Must I tell
you again that Don Carlos is hand and glove with the revolution? The
rebels are crazy to stir up the United States. You are a woman of
prominence. Don Carlos would make off with you. If he got you, what
little matter to cross the border with you! Well, where would the
hue and cry go? Through the troops along the border! To New York! To
Washington! Why, it would mean what the rebels are working for--Un