Page:Edison Marshall--Shepherds of the wild.djvu/140

132 face than had ever dwelt there before. "But what if I wanted to stay—clear to the end?"

A curious luster was in her eyes. "I wouldn't dare believe it—and I wouldn't understand."

"And I'm not sure that I understand, either," he told her. "But my days have never been much use to me before. It's the first time I've ever had a chance to do something—not only for myself but somebody else—the first time I've really had an opening—to do something worth while."

She thought she understood. She knew the West—this mountain girl—and she knew a certain unfortunate breed of men that often come wandering down its long trails. Mostly they come from the busy cities in the East: human derelicts, men who have broken and failed in the struggle for existence. Sometimes they come looking for new opportunities, sometimes they are merely tramps, the wanderlust in their veins, more than often they are men of good families who have sunk to the lowest levels of life. She marked his well-bred speech, and she thought she knew his type. Her keen eyes saw the deep lines in his face, his bloodshot eyes, and she didn't understand how Dan's supply of whisky had been left intact. Possibly Hugh had failed to find it!

Perhaps he would want to go on, in a few more days; yet she couldn't banish the hope that he was of different stuff than most of his kind. "If