“When you say I sought to plunder your people, you speak the truth about me—as I was before I came to love you. From that time on I sought to serve your people.”
“Sought to serve them?” she repeated in perplexity, “The record shows nothing of that.”
“And since the record doesn’t,” he answered steadily, “any assertions and protestations would be without 305 proof. I’ve told you, because my heart compelled me. I won’t try to convince you. At all events, since I failed, my motives don’t matter.”
“Your motives are everything. I took up the fight,” she said, “because I thought a Spurrier had wronged them. I wanted a Spurrier to make restitution.”
“At first I saw only the game, dear heart,” he confessed, “never the unfairness. I’m ready to pay the price. Ruin me—but in God’s name, believe that I love you.”
Her hand came out waveringly at that, and for a moment rested on his shoulder with a little gesture of tenderness.
“I thought I hated you,” she said. “I tried to hate you. I’ve dedicated myself to my people and their rights—but if you trust me enough, call them in and let me talk with them.”
“Trust you enough!” he exclaimed passionately, then he caught her to him, and, when he let her go, he stood again transformed and revivified into the man he had seemed before she appeared in the doorway. It was as though the touch of her lips had given him the fire from which he rose phœnixlike.
With an unhesitant step he went to the door and opened it, and the men who had gone out trooped back and ranged themselves again about the table.
“Mr. Spurrier did all in your interests that a man could do,” said Glory. “He failed to secure your charter and he failed to secure the one tract that serves as the key. I am a mountain woman seeking only to protect my people. I hold that tract as trustee for Bud Hawkins. I mean to do business, but only at a fair 306 price. It’s for you to determine whether I deal with you or your competitors.”