Still these were not all the reasons why he did not want to take her away.

Where could they go?
He feared the rustlers--he feared the riders--he feared the Mormons.

And if he should ever succeed in getting Bess safely away from these immediate perils, he feared the sharp eyes of women and their tongues, the big outside world with its problems of existence.

He must wait to decide her future, which, after all, was deciding his own.

But between her future and his something hung impending.