Gambler's Prize — Valentina Luellen

"Even the gutter is too low for you!"

Babette was stunned, overwhelmed with shame. His cruel insult drove home the appalling lengths to which this Mississippi gambler would go to mend his wounded pride. He would ruin her family... and herself in the process.

Suddenly she felt she had no choice. Her hand touched the cold steel of the derringer in her pocket. Defiantly she pulled the weapon out into the open.

"You are not fit to live!" she cried, and leveled the gun at the man she loved...

...and squeezed the trigger.

Hero: Grant Tyler
Heroine: Babette St. Clair