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"You'd not be out here laying an ambush for them, to kill them when they try to rescue me." He could never make her understand how, by the intricacies of law, it would be a rare chance that he would be able to fasten the crime on the murderers: that he had taken the only sure way open to make them pay for Ezram's death.
He was not further aware of Ezram's searching gaze. He did not know of the old man's delight at the entire incident first the anxious, hurried stroke of the paddle, then the movement of Ben's long fingers as he caught a new hold, finally the white flame of exultation that came into his face. For himself, Ben instantly knew that this was his own sphere.
I'll make a pack for my back that I can't feel. Then you strike off into town." Without especial enthusiasm Ben agreed. Ezram gave a great sigh of satisfaction. He had put through the deal: Ben's secret thought was that Ezram's curiosity always a pronounced trait with the old had mastered him, and he could not wait longer to explore the mine.
Still with the same deathly pallor he crept over the dead leaves to Ezram's feet. His hands were perfectly steady as he unlooped the laces, one after another, and quietly pulled off the right boot. In the boot leg, just as Ezram had promised, Ben found a scrap of white paper. He spread it on his knee, and unfolded it with care.
Then, at the head of the grave, he thrust the barrel of Ezram's rifle into the ground, a monument grim as his own thoughts. The last rite was completed; he was free to work now. From now on he could devote every thought to the work in hand, the payment of his debts. By the same roundabout route he circled back to his camp, cooked his meager lunch, and in the afternoon ventured forth again.
He could still deal justice to Ezram's murderers and thus keep faith with his dead partner; but the primal passions could no longer dominate him. His pet, however, remained the wolf. The sheltering cavern walls were never for him. He loved Ben with an undying devotion, yet a barrier was rising between them. They could not go the same paths forever.
"I don't see that much is to be gained by it. But I'll strike off on foot, if you want me to." Ezram's mind was flashing with thoughts like lightning, and his answer was ready. "Ben, if you don't mind, I'll do that," he said. "I can get along without gazin' at the sky-scrapers of Snowy Gulch, and to tell the truth, that twelve miles of extra walkin' don't appeal to me one bit.
He watched the girl's face, ruddy in the firelight, and it was increasingly hard to remember that she was of the enemy camp, the daughter of his arch foe. To-night she was just a comrade, a habitat of his own cave. For the first time since he had found Ezram's body so huddled and impotent in the dead leaves he remembered the solace of tobacco.
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