“It’s your love that awoke me, and it’s Ben Wade who has saved me.  Wilson, I love him almost as I do dad, only strangely.  Do you know I believe he had something to do with Jack getting drunk that awful October first.  I don’t mean Ben would stoop to get Jack drunk.  But he might have cunningly put that opportunity in Jack’s way.  Drink is Jack’s weakness, as gambling is his passion.  Well, I know that the liquor was some fine old stuff which Ben gave to the cowboys.  And it’s significant now how Jack avoids Ben.  He hates him.  He’s afraid of him.  He’s jealous because Ben is so much with me.  I’ve heard Jack rave to dad about this.  But dad is just to others, if he can’t be to his son.

“And so I want you to know that it’s Ben Wade who has saved me.  Since I’ve been sick I’ve learned more of Ben.  He’s like a woman.  He understands.  I never have to tell him anything.  You, Wilson, were sometimes stupid or stubborn (forgive me) about little things that girls feel but can’t explain.  Ben knows.  I tell you this because I want you to understand how and why I love him.  I think I love him most for his goodness to you.  Dear boy, if I hadn’t loved you before Ben Wade came I’d have fallen in love with you since, just listening to his talk of you.  But this will make you conceited.  So I’ll go on about Ben.  He’s our friend.  Why, Wilson, that sweetness, softness, gentleness about him, the heart that makes him love us, that must be only the woman in him.  I don’t know what a mother would feel like, but I do know that I seem strangely happier since I’ve confessed my troubles to this man.  It was Lem who told me how Ben offered to be a friend to Jack.  And Jack flouted him.  I’ve a queer notion that the moment Jack did this he turned his back on a better life.

“To repeat, then, Ben Wade is our friend, and to me something more that I’ve tried to explain.  Maybe telling you this will make you think more of him and listen to his advice.  I hope so.  Did any boy and girl ever before so need a friend?  I need that something he instils in me.  If I lost it I’d be miserable.  And, Wilson, I’m such a coward.  I’m so weak.  I have such sinkings and burnings and tossings.  Oh, I’m only a woman!  But I’ll die fighting.  That is what Ben Wade instils into me.  While there was life this strange little man would never give up hope.  He makes me feel that he knows more than he tells.  Through him I shall get the strength to live up to my convictions, to be true to myself, to be faithful to you.

     “With love,
          “COLUMBINE.”

     “December 3d.

“DEAREST COLLIE,—­Your last was only a note, and I told Wade if he didn’t fetch more than a note next time there would be trouble round this bunk-house.  And then he brought your letter!

“I’m feeling exuberant (I think it’s that) to-day.  First time I’ve been up.  Collie, I’m able to get up!  WHOOPEE!  I walk with a crutch, and don’t dare put my foot down.  Not that it hurts, but that my boss would have a fit!  I’m glad you’ve stopped heaping praise upon our friend Ben.  Because now I can get over my jealousy and be half decent.  He’s the whitest man I ever knew.