"All right, I'll have to tell you then, Billy. I've heard
things--about your job. I've heard that if you don't do exactly as the
gang says you'll be kuk-killed. Oh, not exactly in those words, but I
know what was meant. No, I shan't tell you where I heard it. It
doesn't matter anyway. It was bad enough when you--I thought you were
just a friend, but now--now when you're just everything to me, I
cuc-can't bear to have you run any risks. Suppose something happens to
you, what would I do? I'd die, I think. I'd want to, anyway."
At which he tried to kiss away her fears, but these were too
deep-rooted for any such old-fashioned remedy as that to be of any
avail.
"No, no, don't!" she protested, holding his head away by main force.
"Not now. I'm not through yet. Listen. You'll fight the gang, I know
you will."
He nodded a slow head. "I've got to. That's why I took the job of
sheriff."
"I knew it," she said sadly. "But you can resign, can't you?"
"I could, but I won't."
"Not if I ask you to?"
"I can't. It would be lying down without a fight, and I've never done
that yet. They'd say I was afraid of 'em."
"What does it matter what they say? You'll have me. We'll be
together."
He put up a hand and stroked the tumbled waves of her black hair. "You
wouldn't love me if I did a thing like that. You'd know I wasn't doing
right."
She shook his face between her hands with gentle earnestness. "Yes, I
would! I would! I know I would! Everything you do is just right! It
would be right if you did it! Don't you see? What does anything
matter so long as we have each other? Why do you have to risk your
life? Oh, take me away, beloved, take me away and I'll marry you
to-morrow!"
Because of what he did then, you'll say he did not love her. But he
did, heart and soul and body, he loved her. Yet he put her resolutely
from him and held her off at the full stretch of his arms. "There's
more to this than you've told me," said he shrewdly. "You're scared.
You're scared bad, but it isn't only the thought of the gang that
scares you. There's something else. What is it?"
At first she would not tell him. He argued with her.
Finally she surrendered. "If you marry me and stay here, you'll be
killed."
He threw back his head and laughed. "Is that all that's worrying you?
We'll be married to-morrow, like I said."
"No, we won't--unless you take me away at once. No, don't kiss me. I
mean it."
"Who told you I'd be killed?"
"I won't tell you."
"Tell me, and I'll make him come here and take back everything he said."
But the recollection of what Rafe Tuckleton and his outfit had almost
succeeded in doing to John Dawson was too fresh in her mind. She did
not dare tell Billy who had told her. She knew right well that if she
did it would simply mean that her lover would be killed the sooner.
The odds against him were great enough as it was.
She shook her head. Her eyes were bright with pure terror. "I can't
tell you!" she whispered in agony of spirit. "I can't!"
"Was it Rafe?"
"I can't tell you!" twisting her head to escape his eyes.
"It _was_ Rafe!"
"It wasn't Rafe!" she lied wearily. "It doesn't matter who it was.
Oh, boy, boy, I don't dare marry you if you stay here. And I want to
marry you, dear heart. I love you so! I love you! Oh, let's go away
where we can be happy together! Why won't you be sensible and take the
easiest way out?"
"God knows I would if I could, but I've got to play the hand out. I
can't back down because there may be a li'l danger. You know I can't,
and down deep you don't want me to. Listen. When you saw Jack Murray
was out to bushwhack me, what did you do? Did you take the easiest way
out and go on about your business, or did you jump right in and risk
your life to save mine?"
"That was different," said she piteously, realizing that her cause was
lost, but fighting to the last. "I did it for you. I'd be willing to
die for you any time. Boy! I love you so hard, nothing else matters!
Nothing! I'd lie, steal, cheat and fight for you! Oh, I'm shameless,
shameless! But that's the way I love you! Why can't you give up
everything for me the way I would for you and take me away and marry
me?"
He was more than a little shaken. He had to summon all his resolution
to withstand her pleadings. But he did more. He got upon his feet and
thrust her down into his place in the chair and held her there with one
hand for all she struggled might and main to wind her arms again around
his neck.
"Listen to me," he said in a voice that trembled. "You don't know what
you are asking me to do. If I did it, I'd be a dog, and I won't be a
dog even for your sake. Marry me now and we'll see it through, you and
I together."
She shook her head. "I--I can't," she whispered, and added with most
human logic, "I don't believe you love me!"
At which he was moved to wrath. "It's you that don't love me! You
listen here! I've asked you for the last time to marry me! You turned
me down for some fool notion that isn't worth a hill of beans. All
right, let it go at that. If ever you change your mind, you'll have to
come to me and put your arms around my neck and tell me I was right to
stick it out and you were wrong to want me not to. And if you don't do
it, you're not the girl I took you for, and I wouldn't look at you with
a telescope!"
She sat speechless. Without another word he stooped, swept his hat
from the floor and went out. And, it must be said to his discredit, he
slammed the door behind him.
A long five minutes Hazel was staring wide-eyed at the door. But he
did not come back. She crept to the window. He was riding away down
the draw. He did not look back. He passed out of sight around the
bend. Hazel slid quietly to the floor and, her face buried in her
hands, began to cry as if her heart would break.
For her little world had been shattered and she was left disconsolate
among the fragments. Her man did not understand.