Emotion such as she showed would have made any woman sweet, and she had a certain charm.

It was easy, even pleasant, to kiss her; but Duane resolved that, whatever her abandonment might become, he would not go further than the lie she made him act.
"Buck, you love me ?" she whispered.
"Yes--yes," he burst out, eager to get it over, and even as he spoke he caught the pale gleam of Jennie's face through the window.

He felt a shame he was glad she could not see.

Did she remember that she had promised not to misunderstand any action of his?
What did she think of him, seeing him out there in the dusk with this bold woman in his arms?
Somehow that dim sight of Jennie's pale face, the big dark eyes, thrilled him, inspired him to his hard task of the present.
"Listen, dear," he said to the woman, and he meant his words for the girl.

"I'm going to take you away from this outlaw den if I have to kill Bland, Alloway, Rugg--anybody who stands in my path.