In the bitterness of his spirit his sense of personal danger was so far absorbed that he speculated on the chance bullet in the melee that might end his folly and relieve him of responsibility.

Shut up in a barn with a furious woman, in a lawless defence of questionable rights--with the added consciousness that an equally questionable passion had drawn him into it, and that SHE knew it--death seemed to offer the only escape from the explanation he could never give.

If another sting could have been added it was the absurd conviction that Cressy would not appreciate his sacrifice, but was perhaps even at that moment calmly congratulating herself on the felicitousness of the complication in which she had left him.
Suddenly he heard a shout and the tramping of horse.

The sides of the loft were scantily boarded to allow the extension of the pent-up grain, and between the interstices Ford, without being himself seen, had an uninterrupted view of the plain between him and the line of willows.
As he gazed, five men hurriedly issued from the extreme left and ran towards the barn.

McKinstry and his followers simultaneously broke from the same covert further to the right and galloped forward to intercept them.