"Yes, because I admire you from the depths of my soul," was the reply. "Your wife is not for me. My mother is not for me. Your children are theirs and yours. My mother is making a gift to you-- I am not doing it. I shouldn't say _gift_. She is trying to pay a debt that she owes you." A sob broke from Joel. He caught John's hand and stared into his eyes. "I now know why Tilly still loves you," he gulped. "She loves you because you are more of God than man. I don't know what to say to you further, but I will say this--and as the Almighty is my witness I mean it. I'll do my duty as the father of my children, as the husband _before the law_ of my wife, and as the manager of your mother's property, but I'll never try to win my wife's heart from you." John's arm slid around the neck of the bowed and broken man. He started to speak, but his voice clogged with a pain that was delicious. It was as if both he and his companion somehow had stood aside from their bodies and were floating among the trees in the dim starlight. Presently, and without a word, Joel turned and walked away. He plunged again into the wood as if to avoid contact with any one from the streets of the town. On he went, his face turned homeward. There was a hill to ascend, a vale to cross. He reached the top of the hill. His step had become sluggish. He groaned aloud. He folded his arms and stood staring into the moonlight. "It is incomplete--unfinished, not rounded out," he muttered. "It cannot remain as it is. I haven't the strength to put it through. I know where I'd fail. I'd continue to suffer, and so would he. He is noble to the core of his being. He is doing his best to help me and her, but he is giving more than he is getting, and that isn't fair. After all, after all, _there is one thing that I can do for him that he could not do for me_!" THE END BOOKS BY ZANE GREY * * * * * _THE U. P. TRAIL_ _THE DESERT OF WHEAT_ _WILDFIRE_ _THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT_ _RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE_ _DESERT GOLD_ _THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS_ _THE LONE STAR RANGER_ _THE RAINBOW TRAIL_ _THE BORDER LEGION_ _KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE_ _THE YOUNG LION HUNTER_ _THE YOUNG FORESTER_ _THE YOUNG PITCHER_ BOOKS BY BASIL KING * * * * * _THE CITY OF COMRADES_ _ABRAHAM'S BOSOM_ _THE HIGH HEART_ _THE LIFTED VEIL_ _THE INNER SHRINE_ _THE WILD OLIVE_ _THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT_ _THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS_ _THE WAY HOME_ _THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT_ _IN THE GARDEN OF CHARITY_ _THE STEPS OF HONOR_ _LET NOT MAN PUT ASUNDER_ NOVELS OF WILL N. HARBEN