“Go on,” commanded Hampton, tersely, “only let the preacher part slide, and say just what you have to say as man to man.”

Wynkoop stiffened perceptibly in his chair, his face paling somewhat, but his eyes unwavering.  Realizing the reckless nature before him, he was one whom opposition merely inspired.

“I prefer to do so,” he continued, more calmly.  “It will render my unpleasant task much easier, and yield us both a more direct road for travel.  I have been laboring on this field for nearly three years.  When I first came here you were pointed out to me as a most dangerous man, and ever since then I have constantly been regaled by the stories of your exploits.  I have known you merely through such unfriendly reports, and came here strongly prejudiced against you as a representative of every evil I war against.  We have never met before, because there seemed to be nothing in common between us; because I had been led to suppose you to be an entirely different man from what I now believe you are.”

Hampton stirred uneasily in his chair.

“Shall I paint in exceedingly plain words the picture given me of you?”

There was no response, but the speaker moistened his lips and proceeded firmly.  “It was that of a professional gambler, utterly devoid of mercy toward his victims; a reckless fighter, who shot to kill upon the least provocation; a man without moral character, and from whom any good action was impossible.  That was what was said about you.  Is the tale true?”

Hampton laughed unpleasantly, his eyes grown hard and ugly.

“I presume it must be,” he admitted, with a quick side glance toward the closed door, “for the girl out yonder thought about the same.  A most excellent reputation to establish with only ten years of strict attendance to business.”

Wynkoop’s grave face expressed his disapproval.

“Well, in my present judgment that report was not altogether true,” he went on clearly and with greater confidence.  “I did suppose you exactly that sort of a man when I first came into this room.  I have not believed so, however, for a single moment since.  Nevertheless, the naked truth is certainly bad enough, without any necessity for our resorting to romance.  You may deceive others by an assumption of recklessness, but I feel convinced your true nature is not evil.  It has been warped through some cause which is none of my business.  Let us deal alone with facts.  You are a gambler, a professional gambler, with all that that implies; your life is, of necessity, passed among the most vicious and degrading elements of mining camps, and you do not hesitate even to take human life when in your judgment it seems necessary to preserve your own.  Under this veneer of lawlessness you may, indeed, possess a warm heart, Mr. Hampton; you may be a good fellow, but you are certainly not a model character, even according to the liberal code of the border.”