“Colonel Dunwoody?” said the outlaw, in a tone of utter surprise. “Yes.” “I am surprised.” “Why so?” “I had heard it said there was a dead romance in his life never to be resurrected.” “No, it was the romance of the portrait ideal. Had he never met your sister, the reality of the ideal, I could have won him, though perhaps never the love I would have wanted, still the love that I would have been satisfied with.” “You are very particular.” “Would that I had been more so in the past.” “Love is a lottery.” “Yes, I grant that; but what do you think of your brother-in-law in prospective, though, of course, you will never know him as such, having been hanged by his order.” “Nonsense.” “Oh, no, sound sense.” “He will never wed Ruth.” “He will.” “She would never wed the man who signed my death-warrant, love him as she might ever so dearly.” “Ah! I had not thought of that.” “Then you do not know her nature.” “Well, he will sign your death-warrant, and, now I come to recall her face, she would not marry the man whose signature was attached to it, so after all there may be a chance for me.” “Not the slightest.” “Why not?” “Having loved an ideal and found her but to lose her, he would be true to his love of a memory and never marry another.” “I believe you are right again. You have been a close student of human nature, Arden.” “I have had reason to be.” “And you know something of Colonel Dunwoody?” “I have heard of him often, and I had a chance to study him at my trial.” “He was severe?” “On the contrary he was kind, for he treated me throughout like a man at his mercy, the under dog in the fight, you know.” “That is his nature.” “He having caught me felt sorry for me, and was anxious to get me out of my misery for his sake and my own, it appeared to me.” “You were observant.” “I always am. But you give up, do you; the man is lost to you?” “I must.” “And you really believe that he loves my sister?” “I know that he does.” “Then aid me to escape so that there can be no barrier to their union, for of all men I believe I would rather have her wed Colonel Dunwoody than any one I know, for he would make her a noble husband.” “I am sure of that.” “And you had better fish in other waters for a lover.” “I?” “Yes, for there is Surgeon Frank Powell, Captain Dick Caruth, Buffalo Bill--and I’ll name no others, for those three strike me as men worth striving for. If I were a woman I should love the three of them and Colonel Dunwoody, too.” “Are you in earnest?” “Indeed I am, for I have the happy faculty of admiring my foes. Now, I have always admired the man who was my rival in love, though I hated him and sought to kill him. To him, to Surgeon Powell and to Buffalo Bill I owe it that I am here now, and yet I cannot but like them immensely. There is Caruth, too, the one who advocated hanging me, and I admire him also and thought he was perfectly right. I would have done as much for him had I had him in my place.”