Hampton held himself under better control.
"I have confidence, Lieutenant Brant, in your honesty," he began, gravely, "and I believe you will strive to do whatever is best for her, if anything should happen to me out yonder.

But for the possibility of my being knocked out, I would n't talk about this, not even to you.
The affair is a long way from being straightened out so as to make a pleasant story, but I 'll give you all you actually require to know in order to make it clear to her, provided I shouldn't come back.

You see, she doesn't know very much more than you do--only what I was obliged to tell to keep her from getting too deeply entangled with you.
Maybe I ought to have given her the full story before I started on this trip.

I 've since wished I had, but you see, I never dreamed it was going to end here, on the Big Horn; besides, I did n't have the nerve." He swept his heavy eyes across the brown and desolate prairie, and back to the troubled face of the younger man.

"You see, Brant, I feel that I simply have to carry these despatches through.