“You’ve told me all this just to see me weaken, eh, Hervey?”

“And I’ve seen it,” said Hervey.  “I’ve seen you ready to take water.  That’s all I wanted.  You’ve lost your grip and you’ll never get it back.  Right now you’re all hollow inside.  Perris, you can’t look me in the eye!”

“You lie,” said Red Jim quietly, and lifting his head, he stared full into the face of his tormentor.  “You made a hound out of me, but only for a minute, Hervey.”

And then she saw him stiffen in the chair, and his eyes narrow.  The chains of fear and of shame which had bound her snapped.

“Hervey!” she cried, and as he whirled she came panting into the door.

Just for an instant she saw a devil glitter in his eyes but in a moment his glance wavered.  He admitted himself beaten as he thrust his revolver into the holster.

“Talk wouldn’t make Perris leave,” he mumbled.  “I been trying to throw a little scare into him.  And the bluff would of worked if—­”

She cut in on him:  “I heard enough to understand.  I know what you tried to do.  Oh, Lew Hervey, if this could be told, your own men would run you down like a mad dog!”

He had grown livid with a mixture of emotions.

“If it could be told.  Maybe.  But it can’t be told!  Keep clear of him, or I’ll drill him, by God!” She obeyed, stepping back from Jim.

He backed towards the door where the saddle of Perris lay, and stooping, he snatched the revolver of Red Jim from the saddle-holster.  For the moment, at least, his enemy was disarmed and there was no fear of immediate pursuit.

“I still have a day or two,” he said.  “And the game ain’t ended.  Remember that, Perris.  It ain’t ended till Jordan comes back.”

And he turned into the darkness which closed over him at once like the falling of a blanket.

“You won’t follow him?” she pleaded.

He shook his head and a moment later, under the touch of his own hunting knife which she drew, the rope parted and freed his arms.  At the same instant she heard the hoofs of Hervey’s horse crashing through the underbrush down the mountain side.  And not till that final signal of success reached her did Marianne give way to the hysteria which had been flooding higher and higher in her throat ever since those words of Hervey had arrested her in the clearing.  But once released it came in a rush, blinding her, so that she could not see Perris through her tears as he placed her gently in the chair.  Only through the wild confusion of her sobbing she could hear his voice saying words she did not understand, over and over again, but she knew that his voice was infinitely soft, infinitely reassuring.

Then her mind cleared and her nerves steadied with amazing suddenness, just as the wind at a stroke will tumble the storm clouds aside and leave a placid blue sky above.  She found Red Jim kneeling beside the chair with his arms around her and her head on his shoulder, wet with her tears.  For the first time she could hear and really understand what he had been saying over and over again.  He was telling her that he loved her, would always love her, that he could forgive Lew Hervey, even, because of the message which he had brought.