He opened the door, gun in hand. "What is it, Rosie?" he gently asked.
"They're coming!" she answered, breathlessly.
"Who're coming?"
"That saloon crowd. They're almost here!"
Other footsteps sounded on the stairs. "Run away, girl," said Kelley, softly. "There's going to be trouble—"
Rosie pushed him back into the room. "No, no! Let me stay! Let me help you fight!" she pleaded.
While still he hesitated, Mrs. Mink, a short, squat woman with eyes aflame with hate, rushed through the doorway and thrust a rifle against Kelley's breast. Quick as a boxer Rosa pushed the weapon from the woman's hands and with desperate energy shoved her backward through the door and closed it.
"Run—run!" she called to the marshal.
But Kelley did not move, and something in his face turned the girl's face white. He was standing like a man hypnotized, every muscle rigid. With fallen jaw and staring eyes he looked at the weapon in his hand. At last he spoke huskily:
"Girl, you've saved my soul from hell. You surely have!" He shivered as if with cold, rubbing his hands stiffly. "Yes," he muttered, "a second more and I'd 'a' killed her—killed a woman!"