was

Any lingering suspicion that this was a trick Al Budd had thought up was dispelled.

Both had blonde hair and blue eyes, and there was even a faint similarity of features.

He was silent a moment, thinking he could use a man this time of year, and if the girl could cook, it would give him more time in the meadows, but he knew nothing about the couple.

They might kill him in his sleep, thinking there was money in the house.

There was more to this than Jones had told him.

When the meal was ready, he told Jones to wash up, and going into the front room, woke the girl.

`` I'm a mess '', she said, and suddenly she was alarmed.

He was thinking of Rittenhouse and how he had left him there, to rock to death on the porch of the Splendide.

It was the only thing in his life for which he felt guilt.

against this bent man in the chair he was powerless.

It was a fair fight, the boy provoked it -- Big Charlie told me so.

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.

It was nice then, so peaceful and quiet.

There was no one but me.

Dawn would come soon and the night was at its coldest.

The silence oppressed him, made him bend low over the horse's neck as if to hide from a wind that had begun to blow far away and was twisting slowly through the darkness in its slow search.

You see, he lied to us when he said he was leavin alone ''.

Joe Purvis was thinking back many years.

He treats her like she was dirt.

It was the night Clayton had tricked them in the poker game.

Cabot turned back to the men and he was drunk with the thing they would do, wild to break from the cloying warmth of the saloon into the cold of the ebbing night.

The wind of their running was cold and wild, the horses were lathered and their manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind.

Gavin's face was bloodless with excitement.

He knew who was riding after him -- the men he had known all his life, the men who had worked for him, sworn their loyalty to him.

And he was fleeing, running -- fleeing his death and his life at the same time.