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Her face was very thin, and burned by the sun until much of the skin was dead and peeling, the new skin under it red and angry.

Do you take in all the strays who come by ''??

He caught her by an arm and helped her into the kitchen.

It's late and you said they'd be here by dawn ''.

Gavin's stallion was in the barn and he tightened the cinches over the saddle blanket, working by touch in the darkness, comforting the animal with easy words.

Lived alone by the river.

The two horses broke from the yard, from the circle of light cast by the lamp still burning in the house, into the darkness.

It looked as Gavin had first seen it years ago, on those nights when he slept alone by his campfire and waked suddenly to the hoot of an owl or the rustle of a blade of grass in the moon's wind -- a savage land, untenanted and brooding, too strong to be broken by the will of men.

A bold line of violet broke loose from the high ridge of the mountains, followed by feathers of red that swept the last stars from the sky.

They had been seen as soon as they left the ranch, picked out of the darkness by the weary though watchful eyes of two men posted a few hundred yards away in the windless shelter of the trees.

And you stand by like a fool and let him do it ''

It was pierced by a wagon gate built of two wings.

He looked at the looming hoods of the supply wagons, struck by a new inspiration.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

His face was split by a vermilion streak, his eyes were pools of white ; ;

I saw the clergyman kneel for a moment by the twitching body of the man he had shot, then run back to his position.

It was pitiful to see the thin ranks of warriors, old and young, wheeling and twisting their ponies frantically from side to side only to be tumbled bleeding from their saddles by the relentless slam, slam of the cruelly efficient Hawkinses.

She showed her surprise by tightening the reins and moving the gelding around so that she could get a better look at his face.

Then she turned back to Wilson and smiled, and he wasn't quite sure what she meant by it.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and went down on one knee, taking her weight so that some of the wind was driven out of him.

You took me by surprise.

Her hat had come off and fallen behind her shoulders, held by the string, and he could see her face more clearly than he had at any time before.

They weren't sleeping, of course, but they thought they were doing him a favor by pretending.

He hadn't shown up too well in their eyes, letting himself be browbeaten by a woman.