“Don’t mind even to answer him—the dog!” Nell muttered. “I swear, after this, I would not lift a hand to stop the boys from stringing him up.” “Is that so?” queried Dick, turning to her again. “You think you’ve got things your own way, don’t you? I’ll show you. Betty! tell this girl what and who I am and why I am not going to leave this room. Tell her, my dear, why you can’t bear to see me given up to the sheriff.” “You dog!” ejaculated Nell. “Tell her, Betty,” commanded Dick, but without raising his voice. The parson’s sister, fairly writhing in her chair, put up her clasped hands to Nell. She whispered brokenly: “Don’t—don’t send him out. Don’t tell, Nell. I—I couldn’t bear it!” “In the name of common sense,” queried the singer, “what do you mean? This fellow’s frightened you out of your wits.” “No, no! For my sake——” “You’re crazy. He can’t hurt you. I have him under my gun. If he makes a move——” “Betty!” shot in Dick. “For Ford’s sake let him stay!” begged Betty, and sank back in her chair again, almost at the point of collapse. CHAPTER XXX—CLEARING SKIES Betty Hunt had, after all, retained her self-possession in a considerable degree throughout this trying interview. Dick Beckworth’s appearance had startled her; but already she had schooled her mind to expecting an interview with him. Really, the coming of Nell Blossom and what had followed her entrance had disturbed Betty more than Dick’s appearance. But now she had got a clutch again upon her mental processes and at this moment, when Dick was about to reveal to the cabaret singer the fact that Betty was his wife, the Eastern girl apprehended and seized upon the plea she believed would, more than any other, cause Nell to let the villain remain without question. For, with the hotel surrounded and the officers searching for Dick, it was probable that the moment he stepped out of the room he would be caught. So Betty cried: “For Ford’s sake let him stay!” It was, after all, a shot in the dark. Betty had not been sure up to this moment that Nell really felt toward the parson as his sister knew Hunt felt toward Nell. But she was in a desperate plight. Betty could not bear to have even her girl friend know of her relation to Dick Beckworth, not as Dick would tell it! And if the villain spread the tale as he promised, Betty knew that her brother’s work might be greatly injured even in such a community as Canyon Pass. For after all, although the mining town was not like Ditson Corners, human nature is about the same everywhere. Betty had done nothing disgraceful in marrying Dick Beckworth and leaving him so abruptly. But for hiding the unfortunate alliance and posing here as an unmarried girl, the tongue of gossip would undoubtedly drag both her own name and Ford’s through the mire of half-truths and suppositions.