The man laughed lightly.
“It is nice to be welcomed, although, perhaps, after your time of loneliness any arrival would prove a relief. Did you think I was never coming, Christie?”
“I could not understand,” she replied, evidently with much less enthusiasm, and to Keith's thinking, a shade resentful of the familiarity, “but naturally supposed you must be unexpectedly delayed.”
“Well, I was,” and he apparently flung both coat and hat on a bench, with the intention of remaining, “The marshal arrested a fellow for a murder committed out on the Santa Fé Trail, and required me as a witness. But the man got away before we had any chance to try him, and I have been on his trail ever since.”
“A murder! Did you imagine he came this way?”
“Not very likely; fact of it is, the sand storm yesterday destroyed all traces, and, as a result, we've lost him. So I headed a few of the boys over in this direction, as I wanted to relieve you of anxiety.”
She was silent an instant, and the man crossed to the fireplace, where Keith could gain a glimpse of him. Already suspicious from the familiar sound of his voice, he was not surprised to recognize “Black Bart.” The plainsman's fingers gripped the negro's arm, his eyes burning. So this gambler and blackleg was the gentlemanly Mr. Hawley, was he; well, what could be his little game? Why had he inveigled the girl into this lonely spot? And what did he now propose doing with her? As he crouched there, peering through that convenient crack in the door, Keith completely forgot his own peril, intent only upon this new discovery. She came slowly around the end of the table, and stood leaning against it, her face clearly revealed in the light of the lamp. For the first time Keith really perceived its beauty, its fresh charm. Could such as she be singer and dancer in a frontier concert hall? And if so, what strange conditions ever drove her into that sort of life?
“Is—is Fred with you?” she questioned, doubtfully.
“No; he's with another party riding farther west,” the man's eyes surveying her with manifest approval. “You are certainly looking fine to-night, my girl. It's difficult to understand how I ever managed to keep away from you so long.”
She flushed to the hair, her lips trembling at the open boldness of his tone.