Hampton stirred uneasily in his chair.
"Shall I paint in exceedingly plain words the picture given me of you?"
There was no response, but the speaker moistened his lips and proceeded
firmly. "It was that of a professional gambler, utterly devoid of
mercy toward his victims; a reckless fighter, who shot to kill upon the
least provocation; a man without moral character, and from whom any
good action was impossible. That was what was said about you. Is the
tale true?"
Hampton laughed unpleasantly, his eyes grown hard and ugly.
"I presume it must be," he admitted, with a quick side glance toward
the closed door, "for the girl out yonder thought about the same. A
most excellent reputation to establish with only ten years of strict
attendance to business."
Wynkoop's grave face expressed his disapproval.
"Well, in my present judgment that report was not altogether true," he
went on clearly and with greater confidence. "I did suppose you
exactly that sort of a man when I first came into this room. I have
not believed so, however, for a single moment since. Nevertheless, the
naked truth is certainly bad enough, without any necessity for our
resorting to romance. You may deceive others by an assumption of
recklessness, but I feel convinced your true nature is not evil. It
has been warped through some cause which is none of my business. Let
us deal alone with facts. You are a gambler, a professional gambler,
with all that that implies; your life is, of necessity, passed among
the most vicious and degrading elements of mining camps, and you do not
hesitate even to take human life when in your judgment it seems
necessary to preserve your own. Under this veneer of lawlessness you
may, indeed, possess a warm heart, Mr. Hampton; you may be a good
fellow, but you are certainly not a model character, even according to
the liberal code of the border."
"Extremely kind of you to enter my rooms uninvited, and furnish me with
this list of moral deficiencies," acknowledged the other with affected
carelessness. "But thus far you have failed to tell me anything
strikingly new. Am I to understand you have some particular object in
this exchange of amenities?"
"Most assuredly. It is to ask if such a person as you practically
confess yourself to be--homeless, associating only with the most
despicable and vicious characters, and leading so uncertain and
disreputable a life--can be fit to assume charge of a girl, almost a
woman, and mould her future?"