"I shall now proceed to disentangle myself from it.

Until I start for Reno I shall live at your house." "You don't think, really, that he would shoot ?" The brother's face expressed incredulity, mixed with worry.
Her forehead contracted in thought.
"As he is now, I feel certain he would not dare.

But should he start drinking--" Ward was on his feet, his pale face grown paler.
"That's just it!" he exclaimed.

"We must forestall him." The same thought had flashed through her brain and she was already on the way to the telephone.

She called up Whitmore's house and asked for the merchant.
"He didn't come home last night," the butler informed her.
Although burning with anxiety she made no further inquiries of the servant.