“No, his affairs would not permit a longer visit,” said Helen. “But you didn't come to talk of him; it was something about Pete.”
She sat very still and rigid while he went into detail as to the whole situation, and when he had finished she rested her chin in her white hand, and he saw her breast rise and fall tremulously.
“There is danger attached to the trip,” she said, without looking at him. “I know it, Keith, by the way you talk.”
He deliberated for an instant, then acknowledged: “Yes, there is, and to my way of thinking, Helen, there is a great deal. Wade and I tried to get him to consent to some other plan, but he wouldn't hear to it. He's so anxious to put it through all right that he won't trust to any substitute, and he won't let any one else go along, either. He thinks it would attract too much attention.”
“In what particular way does the danger lie?” Helen faltered, and Keith saw her pass her hand over her mouth as if to reprimand her lips for their unsteadiness.
“I'd tell you there wasn't any at all, as Carson would have me do,” Keith declared; “but when a fellow has the courage of an army of men, I believe in his getting the full credit for it. You want to know and I'm going to tell you. He's been through ticklish places enough in this business, but going over that lonely road to-night, when a thousand furious men may be on the lookout for him, is the worst thing he has tackled. It wouldn't be so very dangerous to a man who would throw up his hands if accosted, but, Helen, if you could have seen Carson's face when he was telling us about it, you would know that he will actually die rather than see Pete taken. He's reckless of late, anyway.”
“Reckless!” Helen echoed, and this time she gave Keith a full, almost pleading stare.
“Oh yes, you know he's reckless. He's been so ever since Mr. Sanders came. It looks to me like—well, I reckon a man can understand another better than a woman can, but it looks to me like Carson is doing the whole thing because you feel so worried about it.”
“You certainly wrong him there,” Helen declared.
“He is doing it simply because it is right.”