But she did not invite him to alight. On the contrary, she maintained a silence that was nearly severe. He divined that this mood was to continue and instead of getting off his pony he swung crossways in the saddle. "We've got the cattle all out of the hills an' the timber, an' we're workin' down the crick toward here," he told her. "There ain't nothin' unusual happened, except"--and here he paused for a brief instant--"that I had to shoot a man. It was Watt Kelso, from over Lazette way. I hired him two weeks before." "I heard of it," she returned steadily, her voice expressionless. "I hated like poison to do it. But I had no choice. He brought it on himself." "Yes, I suppose so," she said flatly. She looked at him now with the first flash of emotion that she had allowed him to see. "If killing people is your trade, and you choose to persist in it, I don't see how we are to stop you." He looked sharply at her, but his voice was low and even. "I don't shoot folks for the fun of it, ma'am." "No?"--with scornful disbelief. "Well, I presume it doesn't make much difference. Dead people wouldn't appreciate the joke, anyway." His face was serious now, for he could see that she was deeply disturbed over the shooting. "I reckon you wouldn't believe me, no matter how hard I talked," he said. "You'd have your own opinion. It sure does look bad for me--havin' to plug two guys in one season. An' I don't blame you for feelin' like you do about it. But I've got this to say," he went on earnestly. "Kelso come to the outfit, lookin' for trouble. I'd had a run-in with him a few years ago. An' I shot him--in the arm. I thought it was all over. But along comes Kelso, with his mustache shaved off so's I wouldn't know him--which I did. He asked me for a job, an' I give it to him--hopin'. But hopes--" "If you knew him, why did you give him a job?" she interrupted. "It might have saved you shooting him." "If he was wantin' to force trouble he'd have done it sooner or later, ma'am." "Well?" she said, interested in spite of herself. "He waited two weeks for a chance. I didn't give him any chance. An' then, one night, after Red Owen had been cuttin' up some monkey shines, he talked fresh an' pulled his gun. He was a regular gunfighter, ma'am; he'd been hired to put me out of business." There was an appeal in his eyes that did not show in his voice; and it would be all the appeal that he would make. Looking fixedly at him, she became certain of that. "Do you know who hired him?"