Chapter 14 

THROUGH THE VALLEY 

Sampson looked strangely at the great bloody blot on my breast and his look made me conscious of a dark hurrying of my mind. Morton came stamping up the steps with blunt queries, with anxious mien. When he saw the front of me he halted, threw wide his arms. 

"There come the girls!" suddenly exclaimed Sampson. "Morton, help me drag Wright inside. They mustn't see him." 

I was facing down the porch toward the court and corrals. Miss Sampson and Sally had come in sight, were swiftly approaching, evidently alarmed. Steele, no doubt, had remained out at the camp. I was watching them, wondering what they would do and say presently, and then Sampson and Johnson came to carry me indoors. They laid me on the couch in the parlor where the girls used to be so often. 

"Russ, you're pretty hard hit," said Sampson, bending over me, with his hands at my breast. The room was bright with sunshine, yet the light seemed to be fading. 

"Reckon I am," I replied. 

"I'm sorry. If only you could have told me sooner! Wright, damn him! Always I've split over him!" 

"But the last time, Sampson." 

"Yes, and I came near driving you to kill me, too. Russ, you talked me out of it. For Diane's sake! She'll be in here in a minute. This'll be harder than facing a gun." 

"Hard now. But it'll--turn out--O.K." 

"Russ, will you do me a favor?" he asked, and he seemed shamefaced. 
Who was going to be there in a minute?
For Diane's sake! She'll be in here in a minute.