"I'm not asking you to marry me right away, either, remember. All you must do in the meantime is to sign without question some papers that will be required. Then I'll make everything quite safe for you and take you to your own home."
The quick doubt in her eyes had given place to an expression of helpless amazement and growing dismay. But he did not wait to hear anything she might have to say.
"It's like this, you see," he went on hurriedly. "Captain Dove's absolutely at the end of his wits for money, and now—I can pay him his price for you if you'll keep your promise to me by and by. Otherwise I can't; no matter how willing I might be, I can't, I swear to you.
"He feels, too, that you owe it to him to make up in one way or another for some part at least of what he and I have lost through your—your interfering so much lately in his affairs. And, if you don't back me up now, he'll have to take the Olive Branch East as best he can. He'll take you too, and—you'll never come back.
"You don't understand. I'm not really trying to force you to marry me, but to save you from a fate far worse than the worst you could imagine. You don't understand that it's really freedom I'm offering you, and that your only option is slavery.
"You'd rather have a white man—even me!—for your husband, wouldn't you? than a yellow one—or brown—or maybe black!"
CHAPTER XIII
A MASTERSTROKE
Sallie sat down quickly in a cushioned chair, and lay back, trembling like a captured bird.