"I don't know that I could," coldly answered Dick.
"You'd better be going."
Again Dick started for the horse, but a new thought came to him. Pausing, he said. "She can't marry again until—"
"Well?" asked Jack; his voice was full of sinister meaning, and he fingered his gun as he spoke.
Dick realized at once that Jack's plan was to end his life in the desert with a revolver-shot.
"You mean to—" he shuddered.
Jack drew his gun. "Do you want me to do it here and now?" he cried.
Staggering over to him the weakened man grappled with his old friend, trying to disarm him. "No, no, you sha'n't!" he shouted, as Jack shook him free.
"Why not?" demanded Jack. "Go. There's my horse—he's yours—go! When you get to the head of the canon, you'll hear and know—know that she is free and I have made atonement."
"Why should I hesitate?" argued Dick with himself. "I wanted to die. I came here in the desert to make an end of it all, but when I met death face to face, the old spirit of battle came over me, and fought it back, step by step. Now—now you come and offer me more than life—you offer to restore to me all that made life dear, all that you have stolen from me by treachery and fraud. Why should I hesitate? She is mine, mine in heart, mine by all the ties of love—mine by all its vows—I will go back, I will take your place and leave you here—here in this land of dead things, to make your peace with God!"