Brisbane was early awake, abrupt and harsh in command. "Come! we must
get out o' here," he said. "I don't want to be under the slightest
obligation to this young crank. I intend to break him."
She flamed into wrath--a white radiance. "When you break him you break
me," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I've changed my mind. I think he's right and you are wrong."
The entrance of the sheriff prevented a full accounting at the moment,
but it was merely deferred. Once in the carriage, Brisbane began to
discredit her lover. "Don't tell me Curtis is disinterested; he is
scheming for some fat job. His altruistic plea is too thin."
"You are ill-fitted to understand the motives of a man like Captain
Curtis," Elsie replied, and every word cut. "What have you--or I--ever
done that was not selfish?"
"I've given a thousand dollars to charity for every cent of his."
"Yes, and that's the spirit in which you gave--never to help, only to
exalt yourself, just as I have done. Captain Curtis is giving himself.
He and his sister have made me see myself as I am, and I am not happy
over it. But I wish you would not talk to me any more about them; they
are my friends, and I will not listen to your abuse of them."
It was a most fatiguing ride. Brisbane complained of the heat and the
dust, and of a mysterious pain in his head; and Elsie, alarmed by his
flushed face, softened. "Poor papa, I'm so sorry you had to come on this
long ride!" Lawson was also genuinely concerned over the Senator's
growing incoherency, and privately told the driver to push hard on the
reins.
When they rounded the sharp point of the Black Bear Mesa, and came in
sight of the long, low, half-way house, Lawson sat up with a jerk.
"There is the mob--camped and waiting for the sheriff."
As Elsie looked at the swarming figures of the cowboys her mind
forecasted tragic events. The desperadoes were waiting to lynch Cut
Finger--that was plain. Curtis had said he would not surrender his
prisoner to be lynched. He was coming; he would be met by this mob.