In his presence she lost her fear of the dim passageways of Withersteen House and of every sound.
Always it had been that, when he entered the court or the hall, she had experienced a distinctly sickening but gradually lessening shock at sight of the huge black guns swinging at his sides.

This time the sickening shock again visited her, it was, however, because a revealing flash of thought told her that it was not alone Lassiter who was thrillingly welcome, but also his fatal weapons.

They meant so much.

How she had fallen--how broken and spiritless must she be--to have still the same old horror of Lassiter's guns and his name, yet feel somehow a cold, shrinking protection in their law and might and use.
"Did you trail Venters--find his wonderful valley ?" she asked, eagerly.
"Yes, an' I reckon it's sure a wonderful place." "Is he safe there ?" "That's been botherin' me some.

I tracked him an' part of the trail was the hardest I ever tackled.