After a while she went over to the sofa and let her gloved hand fall upon his shoulder.
It took a little shaking to open Jem's eyes, and the first look did not reveal the truth.
But when he looked again and saw the tensely-drawn face, and perhaps the cocked six-shooter in the woman's hand, he sat bolt upright and lost color.
She had unmasked him.
Belle Demona had come to prove that he had deceived her, that he had never gone to Melbourne, and perhaps she knew that his time had been passed in the gilded gambling hells and dance halls of Perth.
"I am here, traitor!" sternly spoke Belle Demona.
Jem shook off the last semblance of sleep and got up.
"You have played me false. You let another make you his slave. You have rested here in Perth."
What could he say?
There were marks of dissipation on his face, and he wondered if Riggs had gone back to the ranch and betrayed him.