I'll stay, I suppose, till I run my
head into a halter."
She was too much moved to speak for a moment, and then: "You come to
me in spite of that? Dick, whatever you have done, I know that it's
only chance which made you go wrong, just as it made Pierre. I wish--"
The dimness of her eyes encouraged him with a hope. He moved closer to
her.
He repeated: "You wish--"
"That you could be satisfied with a mere friendship. I could give you
that, Dick, with all my heart."
He stepped back and smiled somewhat grimly on her.
She went on: "And this McGurk--what do you mean when you say that
Pierre is on his trail?"
"Hunting him with a gun."
She grew paler, but her voice remained steady.
"But in all those miles of mountains they may never meet?"
"They can't stay apart any more than iron can stay away from a magnet.
Listen: half a dozen years ago McGurk had the reputation of bearing a
charmed life. He had been in a hundred fights and he was never touched
with either a knife or a bullet. Then he crossed Pierre le Rouge when
Pierre was only a youngster just come onto the range.
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