DeWitt gasped as if he had been struck.  Newman and Porter stared dizzily.  Only Kut-le stood composed.  His eyes with the old look of tragic tenderness were fastened on the girl.

“Are you going to shoot him now, John?”

“Rhoda!” cried DeWitt fiercely.  “Rhoda!  Do you realize what you are saying?”

“Yes,” said Rhoda steadily.  “I realize that a force greater than race pride, greater than self love, greater than intelligence or fear, is gripping me!  John, I love this man!  He and I have lived through experiences together too great for words.  He had me in the hollow of his hand but he sent me back to you, his enemy.  You say that you love me.  But you would not listen to my pleading, you would not grant me the only favor I ever asked you, the granting of which could not have harmed you.”

Her listeners did not stir.  Rhoda moistened her lips.

“Kut-le——­ Think what he sacrificed for me.  He gave up his dearest friendships.  He gave up his honor and his country and risked his life, for me.  And then when he thought the sacrifice would prove too great on my part, he gave me up!  I ask you to give him his life, for me.  Because, John, and Billy Porter, and Jack, I tell you that I love him!”

“My God!” panted DeWitt.  “Rhoda, don’t!  You don’t know what you’re saying!  Rhoda!”

Rhoda looked off where the afternoon sun lay like the very glory of God upon the chaos of range and desert.  Almost—­almost the secret of life itself seemed to bare itself to the girl’s wide eyes.  The white men watched her aghast.  There was a desperate, hunted look in DeWitt’s tired face.  Rhoda turned back.

“I know what I’m saying,” she replied.  “But I tell you that this thing is bigger than I am!  I have fought it, defied it, ignored it.  It only grows the stronger!  I know that this comes to humans but rarely.  Yet it has come to me!  It is the greatest force in the world!  It is what makes life persist!  To most people it comes only in small degree and they call that love!  To me, in this boundless country, it has come boundlessly.  It is greater than what you know as love.  It is greater than I am.  I don’t know what sorrow or what joy my decision may bring me but—­John, I want you to let Kut-le live that I may marry him!”

DeWitt’s arm dropped as if dead.

“Rhoda,” he repeated, agonizedly, “you don’t know what you are saying!”

“Don’t I?” asked Rhoda steadily.  “Have I fought my fight without coming to know the risk?  Don’t I know what atavism means, and race alienation, and hunger for my own?  But this which has come to me is stronger than all these.  I love Kut-le, John, and I ask you to give his life to me!”

Still Kut-le stood motionless, as did Jack and Porter.  DeWitt, without taking his eyes from Rhoda’s, slowly, very slowly, slipped his Colt back into his belt.  For a long moment he gazed at the wonder of the girl’s exalted face.  Then he passed his hands across his eyes.