Across the girl's face a shadow had fallen. How-
ard w*ondered if it were there because the odd
sadness of a forsaken town had tinged her spirit
with its own weird melancholy; or if she had been
disturbed by word of Jim Courtot. Barbee had
spoken quietly, but Helen might have heard. They
rode in silence until Sanchia's Town was lost be-
hind a ridge. Then Helen asked steadily:

"Is there no way out for you and Jim Courtot
but the way of violence? "

He sought to evade, saying lightly that it began

296



The Shadow

to look as though be and Courtot could no more
meet than could spring and autumn. But when she
asked directly, " What would happen if you did
meet?" he answered bluntly. His mood was not
quarrelsome this morning; be wanted no needless
fight with any man. But if Jim Courtot stepped out
into his trail and began shooting — Well, he left
it to her, what would happen? Then he began to
speak of Barbee and his new girl, of anything that
oSered iteelf to his mind as a lighter topic But
Helen was in no responsive mood. It Kemed to
her that a shadow had crept across the sky; that
the warmth had gone out of the sunlight. A fear
crept into her heart, and like many a baseless emo-
tion grew into certainty, that if VUan Howard and
Jim Courtot came face to face it would be Alan who
fell. When she saw how straight and virile Howard
sat in the saddle; when she marked how full of
life and the sheer joy of life he was; when she read
in his eyes something of his own dreams for the
future ; when then she saw the gun always bumping
at his hip, she shivered as though cold. Her own
senses grew sharpened; her fancies raced feverishly.
