Page:Frederick Faust--Free Range Lanning.djvu/233

Rh It suddenly came home to her that every strong man in the mountain desert was in deadly terror of that hand. Anne Withero was shaken for the first time, and her smile went out.

"Listen to me," he was saying in that tense whisper which was oddly like the tremor of his hand, "I've been hungry for that voice all these weeks—and months—and thousands of years. Go on and talk!"

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," said the girl, very grave. "I'm going to break up this cowardly conspiracy against you. I've written to my father to get the finest lawyer in the land and send him out here to make you—legal—again. Oh, I wrote a letter that'll make dad's blood boil! You'll have to meet dad, Andrew Lanning."

He began to smile, and shook his head.

"It's no use," he said. "Perhaps your lawyer could help me on account of Bill's death, but he couldn't help me from Hal."

"Are you—do you mean you're going to fight the other man, too?"

"He killed his horse chasing me," said Andrew. "I couldn't stop to fight him because I was comin' down here to see you. But when I go away I've got to find him and give him a chance back at me. It's only fair."

"Because he killed a horse trying to get you you're going to give him a chance to shoot you?"

Her voice had become shrill. She lowered it instinctively toward the end and cast a glance of apprehension toward the door.

"You are quite mad," said the girl.

"You don't understand," said Andrew. "His horse was Gray Peter—the stallion."

The simple sentence seemed to mark the vast gulf of difference between them. She only stared at Andrew,