She came to him with quick steps and ran her fingers through his coarse hair.
"I wasn't no better, Pete—me and my brothers." In her emotion she had dropped back into the old looseness of speech.
He seized her hand in both his own and crushed it to his lips so that it hurt pleasurably.
"I know why yuh stole them horses," he murmured. "Yuh cudn't bear to see the Sergeant thinkin' he loved yuh—an' yuh knew he cudn't love a rustler."
"I guess I knew I was going to love you, Pete."
He wrapped his arms about her and buried his face in her neck; and she could feel him trembling.
Presently she spoke again softly:
"And there's the Sergeant."
"God help me!" he groaned. "I think that's what's holdin' me."
From the moment of his leap through Torrance's window the half breed's mind had been disquieted. At any risk, until he could go to them with clean hands, he would not let the Police know he was still alive. He knew their relentlessness in the chase; and he must be free in order to redeem himself.