But he had no need. He could have said nothing 213 that would have cleared the situation, would have told himself or her what was in that pounding heart of his––for to save his life he did not know.
And Tharon frowned in the darkness and drew her hands from under those pressing ones.
“Mr. Kenset,” she said steadily, “you’re always tryin’ to make me weak, to break me down with words an’ looks an’ touches. These hands o’ yours,––damn ’em, they do make me weak! Don’t put ’em on me again!”
And with a sudden, sharp savagery she struck his hands off his breast, whirled away in the darkness and was gone.
CHAPTER IX
SIGNAL FIRES IN THE VALLEY
Kenset, two days later, gave Sam Drake a check for five hundred dollars and a letter, unpostmarked but sealed with tape and wax. Drake, who owned some half-breed Ironwoods, rode the best one down the Wall.
Kenset had cautioned him not to talk before he left––he feared Drake’s propensity for speech. But he was the only man in Lost Valley whom he felt he could approach.