He was as she had seen him in Quade's
place, terribly cool, a strange, quiet smile on his lips. His eyes were
gray, smiling steel.
"Close the door after me and lock it until I return," he said. "You are the
first woman guest I ever had, Ladygray. I cannot allow you to be insulted!"
As he went out she saw him slip something from his pocket. She caught the
glitter of it in the lamp-glow.
CHAPTER VII
It was in the blood of John Aldous to kill Quade. He ran with the quickness
of a hare around the end of the cabin, past the window, and then stopped to
listen, his automatic in his hand, his eye piercing the gloom for some
moving shadow. He had not counted on an instant's hesitation. He would
shoot Quade, for he knew why the mottled beast had been at the window.
Stevens' boy had been right. Quade was after Joanne. His ugly soul was
disrupted with a desire to possess her, and Aldous knew that when roused by
passion he was more like a devil-fish than a man--a creeping, slimy,
night-seeking creature who had not only the power of the underworld back of
him, but wealth as well. He did not think of him as a man as he stood
listening, but as a beast.
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