It was that moment when
night blends with day and there is no sign of light in the sky except that
the stars burn more and more bright as the darkness thickens, and Vic Gregg
watched the stars draw down more closely and believed that he was seeing
this for the last time. Alder seemed inexpressibly dear to him as he stood
there through a little space, and the vaguely discernible outlines of the
shacks along the street were like the faces of friends. In that house
behind him was Betty Neal, waiting, praying for him, and indeed, had it not
been for shame, he would have weakened now and turned back. For he hardly
knew which way to turn. He wanted to save Ronicky and the other two from
the attack of Barry, yet he would not lay a trap for Dan. To Barry he owed
a vast debt; his debt to the three was that which any human being owes to
another. He had to save them from the wolf which ran through the night in
the body of a man.
That thought sent him at a run for Captain Lorrimer's saloon. It was
lighted brilliantly by the gasoline lamp within, but a short distance away
from it he heard no sound and his imagination drew a terrible picture of
the big, empty room, with three dead men lying in the center of it where
the destroyer had reached them one by one.
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