"Aw, now, Ellen," he entreated, in louder, huskier tones, and as if dragged by fatal doubt of her still, he began to turn.
Crash! The rifle emptied its contents in Colter's breast. All his body sprang up. He dropped the gun. Both hands fluttered toward her.
And an awful surprise flashed over his face.
"So--help--me--God! he whispered, with blood thick in his voice.
Then darkly, as one groping, he reached for her with shaking hands.
"Y'u--y'u white-throated hussy!. . . I'll . . ."
He grasped the quivering rifle barrel. Crash! She shot him again.
As he swayed over her and fell she had to leap aside, and his clutching hand tore the rifle from her grasp. Then in convulsion he writhed, to heave on his back, and stretch out--a ghastly spectacle. Ellen backed away from it, her white arms wide, a slow horror blotting out the passion of her face.
Then from without came a shrill call and the sound of rapid footsteps.
Ellen leaned against the wall, staring still at Colter. "Hey, Jim --what's the shootin'?" called Springer, breathlessly.
As his form darkened the doorway Jean once again gathered all his muscular force for a tremendous spring.
Springer saw the girl first and he appeared thunderstruck. His jaw dropped. He needed not the white gleam of her person to transfix him.
Her eyes did that and they were riveted in unutterable horror upon something on the ground. Thus instinctively directed, Springer espied Colter.
"Y'u--y'u shot him!" he shrieked. "What for--y'u hussy? . . .
Ellen Jorth, if y'u've killed him, I'll. . ."
He strode toward where Colter lay.
Then Jean, rising silently, took a step and like a tiger he launched himself into the air, down upon the rustler. Even as he leaped Springer gave a quick, upward look. And be cried out. Jean's moccasined feet struck him squarely and sent him staggering into the wall, where his head hit hard. Jean fell, but bounded up as the half-stunned Springer drew his gun. Then Jean lunged forward with a single sweep of his arm --and looked no more.
Ellen ran swaying out of the door, and, once clear of the threshold, she tottered out on the grass, to sink to her knees. The bright, golden sunlight gleamed upon her white shoulders and arms. Jean had one foot out of the door when he saw her and he whirled back to get her blouse. But Springer had fallen upon it. Snatching up a blanket, Jean ran out.
"Ellen! Ellen! Ellen!" he cried. "It's over! And reaching her, he tried to wrap her in the blanket.
She wildly clutched his knees. Jean was conscious only of her white, agonized face and the dark eyes with their look of terrible strain.
"Did y'u--did y'u . . . " she whispered.
"Yes--it's over," he said, gravely. "Ellen, the Isbel-Jorth feud is ended."
"Oh, thank--God!" she cried, in breaking voice. "Jean--y'u are wounded . . the blood on the step!"
"My arm. See. It's not bad. . . . Ellen, let me wrap this round you."
Folding the blanket around her shoulders, he held it there and entreated her to get up. But she only clung the closer. She hid her face on his knees. Long shudders rippled over her, shaking the blanket, shaking Jean's hands. Distraught, he did not know what to do. And his own heart was bursting.
"Ellen, you must not kneel--there--that way," he implored.
"Jean! Jean!" she moaned, and clung the tighter.
He tried to lift her up, but she was a dead weight, and with that hold on him seemed anchored at his feet.
"I killed Colter," she gasped. "I HAD to--kill him! . . . I offered --to fling myself away. . . ."
"For me!" he cried, poignantly. "Oh, Ellen! Ellen! the world has come to an end! . . . Hush! don't keep sayin' that. Of course you killed him.
You saved my life. For I'd never have let you go off with him . . . .
Yes, you killed him. . . . You're a Jorth an' I'm an Isbel . . .
We've blood on our hands--both of us--I for you an' you for me!"
His voice of entreaty and sadness strengthened her and she raised her white face, loosening her clasp to lean back and look up. Tragic, sweet, despairing, the loveliless of her--the significance of her there on her knees--thrilled him to his soul.
"Blood on my hands!" she whispered. "Yes. It was awful--killing him.
. . But--all I care for in this world is for your forgiveness--and your faith that saved my soul! "
"Child, there's nothin' to forgive," he responded. "Nothin'. . .
Please, Ellen. . ."
"I lied to y'u!" she cried. "I lied to y'u!"
"Ellen, listen--darlin'." And the tender epithet brought her head and arms back close-pressed to him. "I know--now," he faltered on. "I found out to-day what I believed. An' I swear to God--by the memory of my dead mother--down in my heart I never, never, never believed what they--what y'u tried to make me believe. NEVER! "
"Jean--I love y'u--love y'u--love y'u!" she breathed with exquisite, passionate sweetness. Her dark eyes burned up into his.
"Ellen, I can't lift you up," he said, in trembling eagerness, signifiying his crippled arm. "But I can kneel with you! . . ."
