“Then,” she said again wearily, “there is no way out.”

“But there is!  My way, not the one you have thought of.  You have stumbled upon a thing which you must forget; that is all.  Give me the free swing to finish Jim Galloway, to complete certain other undertakings.  Promise me that you will do this; in return I will promise you not to . . . .”

And here he hesitated.

“Not to commit another theft?” She set the matter squarely before him.  “Can you promise that, Rod Norton?  Could you keep the promise were it once made?”

“Yes.”

“No!  You could not.  You don’t understand or you won’t understand.  You would obey the impulse which would come just as certainly as the sun will rise and set again.  So I can neither accept your promise . . . nor give you mine.”

“You will tell what you have guessed?”

“Rather what I know!  Even if you were my own brother. . . .”

“Or your lover?” he demanded, a challenge in his voice.

“Or my lover.  For his sake if not for the sake of others.”

For a little while he made no answer.  Again there was absolute silence between him, a troubled silence filled with pain.  Then suddenly he leaned close to her, threw out his hand for Persis’s rein, jerked both horses back to a fretful standstill.

“Can’t you see what you force me to do?” he demanded half angrily.  “Do you picture what your denunciation would do for me?  Do you think that I can let you make it?”

His face was so near hers that she could see it clearly in the pallid light.  He could see hers and that it was lifted fearlessly.

“How will you stop me?” she asked quietly.

“I will finish Jim Galloway out of hand,” he told her savagely.  “It will no longer be the representative of the law against the lawbreaker; it will just be Norton and Galloway, both men!  I will accomplish the one other matter I have planned.  Both will require not over three or four days.  During that time . . .  I tell you, Virginia, I have grown into a free man, a man who does what he wants to do, who takes what he wants to take, who is not bound by flimsy shackles of other men’s codes.  During those three or four days I shall see that you do no talking!”

Once more, her voice quickened, she asked: 

“How will you stop me?”

“We have come to a deadlock; argument does no good.  Either I must yield to you or you to me.  There is too much at stake to allow of a man being squeamish.  I don’t care much for the job, but by high Heaven I am of no mind to watch life run by through the bars of a penitentiary.  After all action becomes simplified when a crisis comes; doesn’t it?  There is just one answer, just one way out.  You will come with me, now.  I will put you where you will have no opportunity to do any talking for the few days in which I shall finish what I have to do.”  His hand on Persis’s rein drew the two horses still closer together.  “Give me your promise, Virginia; or come with me!”