Following that meeting, with all its power to change and strengthen
Joan, there were uneventful days in which she rode the gulch trails
and grew able to stand the jests and glances of the bandit's gang.
She thought she saw and heard everything, yet insulated her true
self in a callous and unreceptive aloofness from all that affronted
her.

The days were uneventful because, while always looking for Jim
Cleve, she never once saw him. Several times she heard his name
mentioned. He was here and there--at Beard's off in the mountains.
But he did not come to Kells's cabin, which fact, Joan gathered, had
made Kells anxious. He did not want to lose Cleve. Joan peered from
her covert in the evenings, and watched for Jim, and grew weary of
the loud talk and laughter, the gambling and smoking and drinking.
When there seemed no more chance of Cleve's coming, then Joan went
to bed.

On these occasions Joan learned that Kells was passionately keen to
gamble, that he was a weak hand at cards, an honest gambler, and,
strangely enough, a poor loser. Moreover, when he lost he drank
heavily, and under the influence of drink he was dangerous. There
were quarrels when curses rang throughout the cabin, when guns were
drawn, but whatever Kells's weaknesses might be, he was strong and
implacable in the governing of these men.

That night when Gulden strode into the cabin was certainly not
uneventful for Joan. Sight of him sent a chill to her marrow while a
strange thrill of fire inflamed her. Was that great hulk of a
gorilla prowling about to meet Jim Cleve? Joan thought that it might
be the worse for him if he were. Then she shuddered a little to
think that she had already been influenced by the wildness around
her.