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"Heah I've been waitin' for y'u to love nified eivin' in without that wasn't so much to me"

And at these words of the rustler's Jean Isbel felt an icy, sickening shudder creep into his soul He shut his eyes The end of his drea, but at last it had arrived A ion--that lonely and ghost-like hall of his heart which had harbored faith

She burst into speech, louder and sharper, the first words of which Jean's strangely throbbing ears did not distinguish

"-- -- you!I never gave in to y'u an' I never will"

"But, girl--I kissed y'u--hugged y'u--handled y'u--" he expostulated, and the arette ceased

"Yes, y'u did--y'u brute--when I was so downhearted and weak I couldn't lift my hand," she flashed

"Ahuh! Y'u mean I couldn't do that now?"

"I should smile I do, Jim Colter!" she replied

"Wal,ords "But I's, then--he was nothin' to y'u?"

"No more than y'u," she said, o, it seeirl then--innocent--an' I'd not known any but rough men I couldn't all the tith Sometimes before I knew--I didn't care I was a child A kisstosilence

"Say, do y'u expect me to believe that?" he queried, with a derisive leer

"Bah! What do I care what y'u believe?" she cried, with lifting head

"How aboot Simm Brace?"

"That coyote!He lied aboot me, Jim Colter And any man half a ed aboot y'u bein' his girl," asserted Colter "An' he wasn't over--particular aboot details of your love-azed out of the door, over Colter's head, as if the forest out there was a refuge She evidently sensed more about theposition Her lips shut in a fir and to still her passionate tongue Jean, in his absorption, nified his perceptions Not yet was Ellen Jorth afraid of this man, but she feared the situation Jean's heart was at bursting pitch All within hi was true He would wake presently out of a nightmare Yet, as surely as he quivered there, he felt the i flash--a thunderbolt--a balance struck