He came round the corner as he always turned any corner, quick, alert, with his hand down.

If I had been an enemy waiting there with a gun I would have needed to hurry.

Steele was instinctively and habitually on the defense.
"Hello, son! How are Mrs.Hoden and the youngster to-day ?" he asked.
"Hello yourself! Why, they're doing fine! I brought the girls down--" Then in the semishadow of the room, across Mrs.Hoden's bed, Diane Sampson and Steele faced each other.
That was a moment! Having seen her face then I would not have missed sight of it for anything I could name; never so long as memory remained with me would I forget.

She did not speak.

Sally, however, bowed and spoke to the Ranger.