But the skull--Mrs.
Becker--was that right?
Like a flash there came to him out of the darkness a picture of the scene beside the fire--of Mrs.Becker and the colonel, of the woman's golden head resting on her husband's shoulder, her sweet blue eyes filled with all the truth and glory of womanhood as she had looked up into his grizzled face.

And then there took its place the scene beside the fire in the factor's room.

He saw the woman's flushed cheeks as she listened to the low voice of Bucky Nome, he saw again what looked like yielding softness in her eyes--the grayish pallor in the colonel's face as he had looked upon the flirtation.

Yes, he had done right.

She had recovered herself in time, but she had taken a little bit of life from the colonel, and from him.