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Updated: May 18, 2025
Her marriage-portion was deemed, for the times, an ample one; she had seventy thousand rix dollars in hand, and the reversion of thirty thousand on the death of John Frederic the Second, who had married her mother after the death of Maurice.
His knee struck the floor with a soft thud. "Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?" At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she caught him by both shoulders. "I want Donnegan," she said fiercely. "What?" "I want him dead!" Joe Rix gasped. "Here's the cause of all my trouble.
His voice is low and stern; he does not condescend to raise it for such occasion, though there is a something about it that tells the soldier-ear it can ring with command where ring is needed. "I'd like to know what I've done," mutters Rix, angrily kicking at the pebbles at his feet. No answer. The lieutenant has walked back a pace and has seated himself on a little bench.
As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment. Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him. Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards emotionless. Joe Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had complimented the little man on his dress.
Now, you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it. But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch agin' you." "No doubt," remarked Donnegan. "I don't mean any ordinary bunch," explained Joe Rix, "but a lot of hard fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster on the hip."
Both of his hands remained drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly across the face of Joe Rix. It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away. "Coming to cases," he went on, "there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan.
And there was a vital need for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever mischief it was that they were planning. She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door.
Bringing all the principal citizens of the town, their wives and children, and all their moveable property into the market-place, they offered to sell the lot, including the governor, for a hundred thousand rix dollars.
"But I want to know none of your plans and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid in lead!" The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while Joe heard insult and lie.
He implores their protection, and it is only when they see the piteous, haggard, upturned face, and hear the wail of his voice, that Putnam and Abbot recognize the deserter, Rix. Abbot is off his horse and by his side in an instant. Sternly ordering back the men who had grappled and were dragging him, the major holds Rix by the coat-collar and gazes at him in silent amaze.
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