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"I shot you," he said, slowly, "and I want you to get well so I shall not have killed a woman But--for your own sake, too--"

A terrible bitterness darkened her eyes, and her lips quivered

"Hush," said Venters "You've talked too much already"

In her unutterable bitterness he saw a darkness of mood that could not have been caused by her present weak and feverish state She hated the life she had led, that she probably had been co at the hands of Oldring With that conviction Venters felt a sha of fierce anger and ruthlessness In the past long year he had nursed resentment

He had hated the wilderness--the loneliness of the uplands He had waited for so horses he had skulked into the recesses of the canyons He had found Oldring's retreat; he had killed a rustler; he had shot an unfortunate girl, then had saved her fro act, and heof blood, froht for her and for hi of blood, now he rerim, cold calm And as he lost that softness of nature, so he lost his fear ofhis tireat black-bearded rustler who had held a girl in bondage, who had used her to his infae in hior flooded his mind and body; all that had happened to him at Cottonwoods seemed remote and hard to recall; the difficulties and perils of the present absorbed him, held him in a kind of spell

First, then, he fitted up the little cave adjoining the girl's room for his own comfort and use His next as to build a fireplace of stones and to gather a store of wood That done, he spilled the contents of his saddle-bags upon the grass and took stock His outfit consisted of a ses for rifle or revolver, a tin plate, a cup, and a fork and spoon, a quantity of dried beef and dried fruits, and sar, salt, and pepper For hiin a sojourn in the wilderness, but he was no longer alone Starvation in the uplands was not an unheard-of thing; he did not, however, worry at all on that score, and feared only his possible inability to supply the needs of a woman in a weakened and extremely delicate condition