The door swung inward with a swift scrape and jar. Longstreth half entered, haggard, flaming-eyed. Behind him Duane saw Lawson, and indistinctly another man.
Longstreth barred Lawson from entering, which action showed control as well as distrust. He wanted to see into the room.
When he had glanced around he went out and closed the door.
Then what seemed a long interval ensued. The house grew silent once more. Duane could not see Miss Longstreth, but he heard her quick breathing. How long did she mean to let him stay hidden there? Hard and perilous as his life had been, this was a new kind of adventure. He had divined the strange softness of his feeling as something due to the magnetism of this beautiful woman. It hardly seemed possible that he, who had been outside the pale for so many years, could have fallen in love. Yet that must be the secret of his agitation.
Presently he pushed open the closet door and stepped forth.
Miss Longstreth had her head lowered upon her arms and appeared to be in distress. At his touch she raised a quivering face.
"I think I can go now--safely," he whispered.
"Go then, if you must, but you may stay till you're safe," she replied.
"I--I couldn't thank you enough. It's been hard on me--this finding out--and you his daughter. I feel strange. I don't understand myself well. But I want you to know--if I were not an outlaw--a ranger--I'd lay my life at your feet.""Oh! You have seen so--so little of me," she faltered.
"All the same it's true. And that makes me feel more the trouble my coming caused you.""You will not fight my father?"
"Not if I can help it. I'm trying to get out of his way.'
"But you spied upon him."
"I am a ranger, Miss Longstreth."
"And oh! I am a rustler's daughter," she cried. "That's so much more terrible than I'd suspected. It was tricky cattle deals Iimagined he was engaged in. But only to-night I had strong suspicions aroused.""How? Tell me."
"I overheard Floyd say that men were coming to-night to arrange a meeting for my father at a rendezvous near Ord. Father did not want to go. Floyd taunted him with a name.""What name?" queried Duane.
"It was Cheseldine."
"CHESELDINE! My God! Miss Longstreth, why did you tell me that?""What difference does that make?"
"Your father and Cheseldine are one and the same," whispered Duane, hoarsely.
"I gathered so much myself," she replied, miserably. "But Longstreth is father's real name."Duane felt so stunned he could not speak at once. It was the girl's part in this tragedy that weakened him. The instant she betrayed the secret Duane realized perfectly that he did love her. The emotion was like a great flood.
"Miss Longstreth, all this seems so unbelievable," he whispered. "Cheseldine is the rustler chief I've come out here to get. He's only a name. Your father is the real man. I've sworn to get him. I'm bound by more than law or oaths. I can't break what binds me. And I must disgrace you--wreck your lifer Why, Miss Longstreth, I believe I--I love you. It's all come in a rush. I'd die for you if I could. How fatal--terrible--this is! How things work out!"She slipped to her knees, with her hands on his.
"You won't kill him?" she implored. "If you care for me--you won't kill him?""No. That I promise you."
With a low moan she dropped her head upon the bed.
Duane opened the door and stealthily stole out through the corridor to the court.
When Duane got out into the dark, where his hot face cooled in the wind, his relief equaled his other feelings.
The night was dark, windy, stormy, yet there was no rain. Duane hoped as soon as he got clear of the ranch to lose something of the pain he felt. But long after he had tramped out into the open there was a lump in his throat and an ache in his breast.
All his thought centered around Ray Longstreth. What a woman she had turned out to be! He seemed to have a vague, hopeless hope that there might be, there must be, some way he could save her.