Page 118 (1/1)

"Afraid I can't enthuse with you on that subject for a day or two yet," he answered with a laugh "Truth is I found their childlike i Next tiht mention that I'm liable to have an impulse of s I want to talk with you about Manuel says you mean to prosecute I hope you won't They're friends ofme Of course I have no claim on you, but----"

"You have a claim, Miss Valdés We'll take that up presently Just noe're talking about a couple of criminals due for a term in the penitentiary I offered theh They'll have to stand the gaff, I reckon"

She realized at once there was no use arguing with him The steel in his eyes told her he had made up his mind and was not to be moved But she could not desert her foolish dependents

"I know What you say is quite true, but--I'll have to coreement with you I can't let them be punished for their loyalty tolook, its fearlessness, won his admiration In her sli with the unconscious appeal of sex, there was a fine courage to face frankly essential facts But he was a hard man to move once he had made up his ood nature, he knew his own mind, and held to it with the stiffness characteristic of outdoor Westerners

"You're not in this, Miss Valdés I'll settle my own accounts with your friends Sebastian and Pablo"

"But even for your own sake----" She stopped, intuitively aware that this was not the ground upon which to treat with hiainst the Mexicansthem

"I reckon I'll have to try to look out for myself Maybe next time I won't be so easy a h

Valencia was a little puzzled Things were not going right, and she did not quite know the reason There was just a touch of bitterness in his voice, of aloofness in his ht of the solitaire sparkling on her left hand stirred in him the impulse to hurt her, to refuse rather than concede her requests

"You're not going to push the cases against Pablo and Sebastian and still try to live in the valley, are you?" she asked, beginning to feel a little irritation at him