The man uttered an unrestrained oath, fully believing now that he was

being led into a cunningly devised trap. His mental operations were

slow, but he was swift and tenacious enough in prejudice. He stopped

still, and the two stood silently facing each other, the same vague

spectre of suspicion alive in the minds of both.

"Farnham," the man muttered, for one instant thrown off his guard from

surprise. "How th-the hell d-d-did he g-git hold o' that?"

"I don't know; but is n't it true?"

He turned her face around toward the light, not roughly, yet with an

unconscious strength which she felt irresistible, and looked at her

searchingly, his own eyes perceptibly softening.

"Y-you sure l-l-look all right, little g-girl," he admitted, slowly,

"but I 've h-heard th-th-that feller was hell with w-women. I-I reckon

you b-better go b-back to Farnham an' find out."

He paused, wiping his perspiring face with the back of his hand, his

cheeks reddening painfully under her unfaltering gaze. Finally he

blurted out: "Say, w-who are you, anyhow?"

"Beth Norvell, an actress."

"You kn-kn-know Farnham?"

She bent her head in regretful acknowledgment.

"An' you kn-kn-know the señorita?"

"Yes, a very little."

Stutter Brown wet his lips, shifting awkwardly.

"Well, y-you 'll excuse me, M-Miss," he stuttered in an excess of

embarrassment, yet plunging straight ahead with manly determination to

have it out. "I-I ain't much used t-t-to this sorter th-thing, an'

maybe I-I ain't got no r-r-right ter be a-botherin' you with m-my

affairs, nohow. But you s-see it's th-this way. I 've sorter t-took a

big l-l-likin' to that dancin' girl. Sh-she 's a darn sight n-n-nearer

my s-style than anything I 've been up a-against fer s-some time. I-I

don't just kn-know how it h-h-happened, it was so blame s-sudden, b-but

she 's got her l-l-lasso 'bout me all r-right. But Lord! sh-she 's all

fun an' laugh; sh-sh-she don't seem to take n-nothin' serious like, an'

you c-can't make much ou-ou-out o' that kind; you n-never know just how

to t-take 'em; leastwise, I don't. N-now, I 'm a plain s-s-sorter man,

an' I m-make bold ter ask ye a m-mighty plain sorter qu-question--is

that there M-M-Mercedes on the squar?"

He stood there motionless before her, a vast, uncertain bulk in the dim

light, but he was breathing hard, and the deep earnestness of his voice

had impressed her strongly.

"Why do you ask me that?" she questioned, for the moment uncertain how

to answer him. "I scarcely know her; I know almost nothing regarding

her life."

"Y-you, you are a w-woman, Miss," he insisted, doggedly, "an', I t-take

it, a woman who will u-understand such th-th-things. T-tell me, is she

on the squar?"

"Yes," she responded, warmly. "She has not had much chance, I think,

and may have made a mistake, perhaps many of them, but I believe she 's

on the square."




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