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I advise you to get back to your husband and your beauty sleep, in order to be fresh for your Big Tent to-night." "My husband? You know? Oh, of course you know." She gazed affrightedly upon me. "To Montoyo, you say? Him? No, no! I can't! Oh, I can't, I can't." She wrung her hands, she held me fast. "And I know where you're going. To that wagon train. Mr. Jenks has engaged you.
The light that broke upon me dazed. My heart pounded. I must have looked what I felt: a fool. "No," I stammered in my thin small voice of the hotel. "I imagined I had reason to suspect that she might be married. But I didn't know to whom." "Married? Wall, mebbe. Anyhow, she's bound to Montoyo. He's a breed, some Spanish, some white, like as not some Injun. A devil, and as slick as they make 'em.
"At any rate," I informed, "Mrs. Montoyo is entirely out of the matter. She never was in it except as she was entitled to protection, but now she requires no further notice." "How so?" "That is her wish. She sent me word by Rachael." "She did? Wall?" He eyed me. "You swaller that?" "Willingly." And I swallowed my bitterness also. "Means to marry him, does she?" "Rachael did not say as to that.
To have argued with her would have been sacrilege, for I verily believed that she was pure of heart. "There is nothing for me to say, madam," I responded. "As far as I can do so with self-respect I will avoid Daniel. I certainly shall not intrude upon your party, or bother Mrs. Montoyo. But if Daniel brings trouble to me I will hand it back to him. That's flat. He shall not flout me out of face.
"Gentlemen! Won't one of you help me? What are you afraid of? I can pay my way I ask no favors I swear to you that I'll give no trouble. I only wish protection across." "Where's Pedro? Where's Montoyo?" She turned quickly, facing the jeer; her two eyes blazed, the red spots deepened angrily. "He? That snake? I shot him." "What! You? Killed him?" Exclamations broke from all quarters.
"Here's the wagon boss," Jenks grunted, and spat. "Mebbe you can throw in with him. When it comes to supers, that's his say-so. I've all I can tend to, myself, and I don't look for trouble. I've got no love for Montoyo, neither," he added. "Damned if I ain't glad you give him a dose." Murmurs of approval echoed him, as if the tide were turning a little.
Damn him," I flashed, with pardonable flame, "and he ruffles at me on every occasion. In fact, he seems to seek occasion. Witness this evening." "Witness this evening," she murmured. "I'm afraid, too. Yes," she breathed, confronted by a portent, "I'm afraid. I never have been afraid before. I didn't fear Montoyo. I've always been able to take care of myself. But now, here "
And Montoyo struck me me, in public! That is the end. Oh, why couldn't I have killed him? But if you stayed here, so should I. Not with him, though. Never with him. Maybe I'm talking wildly. You'll say I'm in love with you. Perhaps I am quién sabe? No matter as to that. I shall be no hanger-on, sir. I only ask a kind of partnership the encouragement of some decent man near me.
We all kept to our own tasks and our own fires, with the exception that Daniel gawked and strutted in the manner of a silly gander, and made frequent errands to his father's household. "Montoyo, by Gawd!" Jenks pronounced, in a grumble of disgust rather than with any note of alarm. "Look alive." And "He don't hang up my pelt; no, nor yourn if I can help it."
I would live, I would live. But he Daniel? "Did I kill him?" I besought. "Not that! I didn't aim I don't know how I shot but I had to. Didn't I?" "You did. He'll not bother you ag'in. She's yourn." That hurt. "But it wasn't about her, it wasn't over Mrs. Montoyo. He bullied me dared me. We were man to man, boys. He made me fight him." "Yes, shore," they agreed and they were not believing.
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