Whatever her life might be, she was certainly an innocent victim in this case, deserving his protection.

The memory came to him of her face upturned toward him in that little room of the Occidental, her eyes tear-dimmed, her lips asking him to come back to her again.

He could not believe her a bad woman, and his lips compressed, his eyes darkened, with fixed determination.

He would dig into this until he uncovered the truth; he would find out what dirty trick "Black Bart" was up to.
As he thought this out, not swiftly as recorded, but slowly, deliberately, piecing the bits together within his mind, blindly feeling his way to a final conclusion, the boy had sunk back upon the bed, overcome with liquor, and fallen asleep.

Keith stepped over, and looked down upon him in the dim light.