"I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not the kind to help in this business. I don't expect it. I don't ask it. I need a ranch like this down here for storage. I'm going to take the old woman into partnership with me."

She started back in an instinctive recoil of horror.

"Your MOTHER?"

He nodded.

"Yep!"

She drew a step nearer and peered into his set face.

"YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?"

"Sure!" he growled. "That's what I came down here for."

"She won't do it!"

"She won't, eh?" he sneered. "Look at this hog pen!"

He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of contempt and shrugged his shoulders.

"Look at the rags she's wearing," he went on savagely. "When we talk it over tonight with that five thousand dollars in gold shining in her eyes--I'm going to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, Kiddo--take it from me!"

She answered in slow, even tones:

"I can't live with you, Jim."

The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were leaping now in the yellow glare of the candle's rays. The muscles of his body were knotted.

His voice came from his throat a low growl.

"Do you know who you're fooling with?"

The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and nerved her with reckless daring. Her figure stiffened and her voice rang with defiant scorn:

"Yes. I know at last--a thief who would drag his own mother down to hell with him!"

Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face was a stolid mask. He threw his words slowly through his teeth:

"Now you listen to me. You're my wife. I didn't invent this marriage game. I played it as I found it. And that's the way you're going to play it. You're good and sweet and clean--I like that kind, and I won't have no other. You're mine. MINE, do you hear! Mine for life--body and soul--'FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'----"

He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into her face:

"'----AND OBEY!'" he hissed, "'UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'--you said it, didn't you?"

"Yes----"

"Well?"

She turned from him with sudden aversion:

"I didn't know what you were----"

"Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!" he broke in savagely. "You took your chances. I took mine--'FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.' We'll just say now it's for worse and let it go at that!"

The little body stiffened.

"I'll die first!"

He held her gaze without words, searching the depths of her being with the cold, blue flame in his drooping eyes. If she were bluffing, it was easy. She could talk her head off for all he cared. If she meant it, he might have his hands full unless he mastered the situation at once and for all time.

There was no sign of yielding to his iron will. An indomitable soul had risen in her frail body and defied him. His decision was instantaneous.

"Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me--eh?"

There was something hideous in the cold venom with which he drawled the words. Her heart fairly stopped its beating. With the last ounce of courage left, she held her place and answered:

"Yes!"

With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his clenched fist to strike.

"Forget it!"

She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in pitiful weakness.

"You snivelling little coward!" he growled.

"Oh, Jim, Jim," she faltered,--"you--you--couldn't strike me!"

A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat head thrust forward, his eyes gleaming, his muscles knotted in blind rage.

"No--I won't STRIKE you," he whispered. "I'll just KILL you--that's all!"

With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on her and his sharp fingers gripped her throat.

The world went black and she felt herself sinking into a bottomless abyss. With maniac energy she tore his hands from her throat and the warm blood streamed from the gash his nails had torn.

"Jim! Jim! For God's sake!" she moaned in abject terror.

With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a leopard's claw, found her neck again and closed with a grip that sent the blood surging to her brain and her eyes starting from their sockets.

The one hideous thought that flashed through her mind was that he was going to plunge his claws into her eyes and blind her for life. He could hold her his prisoner then. She made a last desperate struggle for breath, her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the couch toward which he had hurled her in the first rush of his assault.

He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to make sure, loosed his hands and the limp body dropped on the couch and was still.

He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his side.

"Damned little fool!" he muttered. "I had to give you that lesson. The sooner the better!"