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Updated: June 27, 2025
She smiled wanly. "I'll drift along, gentlemen. I'll play the lone hand. Montoyo shall never seize me. I'd rather trust to the wolves and the Indians. There'll be another wagon train." "I am only an employee, madam," I faltered. "If I had an outfit of my own I certainly would help you." She flushed painfully; she did not glance at me direct again, but her unspoken thanks enfolded me.
But you'll do better to wait for the train at Bridger, Mr. ? I don't believe I have your name?" "Beeson," I informed, astonished. "And the lady's? Your sister? Wife?" "Mrs. Montoyo," I informed. And I repeated, that there should be no misunderstanding. "Mrs. Montoyo, from Benton. No relative, sir." He passed it over, as a gentleman should. "Well, Mr. Beeson, you have business with the train?"
The day's march had been, so to speak, rather pensive; for while there were the rough jokes and the talking back and forth, it seemed as though the scene of early morning lingered in our vista. The words of Montoyo had scored deeply, and the presence of our supernumerary laid a kind of incubus, like an omen of ill luck, upon us. Indeed the prophecies darkly uttered showed the current of thought.
The lad, I gathered from the talk, drew on you after he'd cried quits." He turned hastily. "You spoke, madam? Anything wanted?" The trumpeter orderly plucked me by the sleeve. He was a squat, sun-scorched little man, and his red-rimmed blue eyes squinted at me with painful interest. He whispered harshly from covert of bronzed hand. "Beg your pardon, sorr. Mrs. Montoyo, be it that lady?" "Yes."
"To save her face, and egg you on. Shore! Your twenty dollars was nothin'. She didn't know you were busted. Next time she'd have steered you to the tune of a hundred or two and cleaned you proper. You hadn't been worked along, yet, to the right pitch o' smartness. Montoyo must ha' mistook her. She encouraged you, didn't she?" "Yes, she did." I arose unsteadily, clutching the table.
Montoyo would be delivered over to the stage there. It scarcely would be her wish. We were destined to travel on to Salt Lake City together she, Daniel and I.
I felt her instant look. She spoke palpitant. "You have one man among you all. But I am going. Good-night, gentlemen." "No! Wait!" I begged. "You shall not go by yourself. I'll see you into safety." Daniel cackled. "Haw haw! What'd I tell yu, paw? Hear him?" "By gum, the boy's right," Jenks declared. "Will you go back to Benton if we take you?" he queried of her. "Are you 'feared of Montoyo?
Altogether, you are well protected, even if your conscience slips. But tell me: Do you blame me for running away from Montoyo?" "Not in the least," I heartily assured. "You would have helped me, at the last?" "I think I should have felt fully warranted." Again I floundered. "Even to stowing me with a bull train?" "Anywhere, madam, for your betterment, to free you from that brute." "Oh!"
"I will go back, but there's no need of Mrs. Montoyo. If you could see her safely landed at a stage station, and for Benton ?" "We'll land you both. I have to report at Bridger. The train is all right. It has an escort to Bitter Creek." "I can overtake it, or join it," said I. "But the lady goes to Benton." "Yes, yes," he snapped. "That's nothing to me, of course.
However, now that once My Lady had eliminated herself from my field I did not see but that Daniel and I might taper off into at least an armed neutrality. If he continued to nag me, it would be wholly of his own free will. He had no grievance. In this I took what small comfort I might. I had not spoken at length with Mrs. Montoyo for several days. We had exchanged merely civil greetings.
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