Beth Norvell

"Wait!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Wait where you are until I am done.

You have heard only a part of this thing so far. My God, girl! don't

you know me well enough by this time to comprehend that I always have

my way, whatever the cost may be to others? Lord! what do I care for

this fellow? or, for the matter of that, what do I care for you? I

don't permit people to stand in my path; and I supposed you had

thoroughly learned that lesson, if no other. Faith, you had cause

enough, surely. So you refuse all endeavor to keep Winston out of this

affair, do you? Perhaps you had better pause a minute, and remember

who it is you are dealing with. I reckon you never saw any signs of

the quitter about me. Now, it 's true I 'd rather have you do this

business up quietly; but if you refuse, don't forget there are other

means fully as effective, and a damn sight quicker." He reached out

suddenly, grasping her hand. "Did you ever hear the adage, 'Dead men

tell no tales'?" he questioned savagely.

She drew her hand sharply back from its instant of imprisonment, with a

smothered cry, her eyes filled with undisguised horror.

"You threaten--you threaten murder?"

"Oh, we never use that word out in this country--it is considered far

too coarse, my dear," and Farnham's thin lips curled sardonically. "We

merely 'silence' our enemies in Colorado. It is an extremely simple

matter; nothing at all disagreeable or boorish about it, I can assure

you. A stick of dynamite dropped quietly down a shaft-hole, or pushed

beneath a bunk house--that's all. The coroner calls it an accident;

the preachers, a dispensation of Providence; while the fellows who

really know never come back to tell. If merely one is desired, a

well-directed shot from out a cedar thicket affords a most gentlemanly

way of shuffling off this mortal coil."

"You would not! You dare not!"

"I? Why, such a thought is preposterous, of course, for the risk would

be entirely unnecessary. Quite evidently you are not well acquainted

with one of the flourishing industries of this section, my dear. There

are always plenty of men out of a job in this camp; conscience does n't

come high, and the present market price for that sort of work is only

about twenty-five dollars a head. Not unreasonable, all things

considered, is it?"

If she had not thoroughly known this man, had not previously sounded

his depths, she might have doubted his meaning, deceived by the lazy

drawl in his soft voice, the glimmer of grim humor in his eyes. But

she did know him; she comprehended fully the slumbering tiger within,

the lurking spirit of vindictiveness of his real nature, and that

knowledge overcame her, left her weak and trembling like a frightened

child. For an instant she could not articulate, staring at him with

white face and horrified eyes.