Sally, as swiftly as she had blushed, could change into that deadly sweet mood.  She did both now.  She seemed warm, softened, agitated.  How could this be anything but sincere?  I felt myself slipping; so I laughed harshly.

“Chance!  I’ve no chance on earth.”

“Try!” she whispered.

But I caught myself in time.  Then the shock of bitter renunciation made it easy for me to simulate anger.

“You promised not to—­not to—­” I began, choking.  My voice was hoarse and it broke, matters surely far removed from pretense.

I had seen Sally Langdon in varying degrees of emotion, but never as she appeared now.  She was pale and she trembled a little.  If it was not fright, then I could not tell what it was.  But there were contrition and earnestness about her, too.

“Russ, I know.  I promised not to—­to tease—­to tempt you anymore,” she faltered.  “I’ve broken it.  I’m ashamed.  I haven’t played the game square.  But I couldn’t—­I can’t help myself.  I’ve got sense enough not to engage myself to you, but I can’t keep from loving you.  I can’t let you alone.  There—­if you want it on the square!  What’s more, I’ll go on as I have done unless you keep away from me.  I don’t care what I deserve—­what you do—­I will—­I will!”

She had begun falteringly and she ended passionately.

Somehow I kept my head, even though my heart pounded like a hammer and the blood drummed in my ears.  It was the thought of Steele that saved me.  But I felt cold at the narrow margin.  I had reached a point, I feared, where a kiss, one touch from this bewildering creature of fire and change and sweetness would make me put her before Steele and my duty.

“Sally, if you dare break your promise again, you’ll wish you never had been born,” I said with all the fierceness at my command.

“I wish that now.  And you can’t bluff me, Mr. Gambler.  I may have no hand to play, but you can’t make me lay it down,” she replied.

Something told me Sally Langdon was finding herself; that presently I could not frighten her, and then—­then I would be doomed.

“Why, if I got drunk, I might do anything,” I said cool and hard now.  “Cut off your beautiful chestnut hair for bracelets for my arms.”

Sally laughed, but she was still white.  She was indeed finding herself.  “If you ever get drunk again you can’t kiss me any more.  And if you don’t—­you can.”

I felt myself shake and, with all of the iron will I could assert, I hid from her the sweetness of this thing that was my weakness and her strength.

“I might lasso you from my horse, drag you through the cactus,” I added with the implacability of an Apache.

“Russ!” she cried.  Something in this last ridiculous threat had found a vital mark.  “After all, maybe those awful stories Joe Harper told about you were true.”

“They sure were,” I declared with great relief.  “And now to forget ourselves.  I’m more than sorry I distressed Miss Sampson; more than sorry because what I said wasn’t on the square.  Blome, no doubt, has come to Linrock after Steele.  His intention is to kill him.  I said that—­let Miss Sampson think it all meant fatality to the Ranger.  But, Sally, I don’t believe that Blome can kill Steele any more than—­than you can.”