"He committed a crime, didn't he, sir?" she exclaimed, laying her hand on Old Broadbrim's arm. "And you have come out to take him away from me. Why, sir, if I chose I could turn you in a moment over to death, and you would never drag him from Round Robin Ranch. You saved his life last night, and he does not dream that you did so in order to bring him some day under the halter. What if he should discover this? Why, as cool as you are and as brave, your life wouldn't be worth the sunbeams on the grass."
"Let that go, girl. It is something I know already and I fear it not."
"I like brave men. But you have not answered me. What did he do in America? She sent him away."
"Belle Demona?"
"Bella, the Demon," cried Stareyes. "She sent him off on the dark mission across the sea. But for her he would not have gone and committed the crime. I heard the bargain."
"You heard it, girl? When?"
"More than six months ago."
"Here?"
"In yonder house. I was a shadow on the porch underneath the window, and but little of the bargain escaped me. He was to avenge her."
"Who had wronged her?"