Now, however, the disguise was for a moment torn aside, and he saw himself as he was, a thief and a miscreant, no better than the brutish bushman who had slain his sick kinsman for a hundred dollars.

There was, as he had read already, nothing to redeem the sordid, cowardly treachery of that crime.
Deringham was, however, proficient at finding excuses for himself and shutting his eyes to unpleasant facts, and the phase commenced to pass.
He had, he recollected, plainly stated that he merely desired Alton to be detained a little amidst the ranges, and it became evident to him that what had happened was the result of Hallam's villainy.

Hallam had injured him as well as Alton, while there was no controverting the fact that the rancher's decease would relieve him of a vast anxiety, and his first indignation against Hallam also melted when he rose composedly from the chair.

He felt that Seaforth expected something of him, and it appeared advisable to consider what could be done, while a project already commended itself to him.

In another five minutes he had rejoined his daughter, looking more like the man who urbanely presided over the not always contented shareholders' meetings.