Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/184

 168 "Why what can you mean! I—I do not understand!"

"Of course not—the conception is wild, impractical, perhaps. It must seem so to you—yet listen. It is the one way left open to save you from Anse Cowan. You can trust me? You do trust me, do you not?"

"Ye-es—but—"

"This is no time to question. They are coming here now, those fellows with Anse Cowan at their head. You know what for. Whatever the real object may be some among them have not hesitated at murder for its attainment—they will not spare you. The question is not do you wish to marry me; but do you trust me more than you do Anse Cowan? Do you hear them breaking down those doors at the front of the house? There, by the sound, someone is already in the room next to this. Listen! it will be a form only—I am not conceited enough to believe you desire me for your husband. But you know who I am; you have confidence in my honor, and I offer you this opportunity to escape from that brute. He cannot marry you if you are already my wife—"

"He—he could kill you."

"Yes, there are enough of them; but that might happen anyway. No doubt it would, for otherwise