"
"Well," said Courthorne, "I fancy that night narrowed in my life for
me, but I made out across the prairie in the morning, and as we had a
good many friends up and down the country, one of them took care of me."
Winston sat silent a while. The story had held his attention, and the
frankness of the man who lay panting a little in his chair had its
effect on him. There was no sound from the prairie, and the house was
very still.
"Why did you kill Shannon?" he asked, at length.
"Is any one quite sure of his motives?" said Courthorne. "The lad had
done something which was difficult to forgive him, but I think I would
have let him go if he hadn't recognized me. The world is tolerably
good to the man who has no scruples, you see, and I took all it offered
me, while it did not seem fitting that a clod of a trooper without
capacity for enjoyment, or much more sensibility than the beast he
rode, should put an end to all my opportunities. Still, it was only
when he tried to warn his comrades he threw his last chance away."
Winston shivered a little at the dispassionate brutality of the speech,
and then checked the anger that came upon him.
"Fate, or my own folly, has put it out of my power to denounce you
without abandoning what I have set my heart upon, and after all it is
not my business," he said. "I will give you five hundred dollars and
you can go to Chicago or Montreal, and consult a specialist. If the
money is exhausted before I send for you, I will pay your hotel bills,
but every dollar will be deducted when we come to the reckoning.
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