“I won’t forgit this yer, gal,” said Velveteens, in a tone of deadly menace, “you may be right sure of that.”
“I don’t mean that you shall, sir,” she answered, calmly. “There is the antelope I have killed which I wish to have carried home. Pick it up and go in front.”
“Do you think I’m a pack-mule?” he roared, angrily.
“Your ears are long enough and your skull does not want in thickness, but it is not proof against a bullet, as you will find if you do not obey me at once,” was the answer. “Do not waste any time, sir, I have none to lose.”
Groaning in spirit but seeing no way out of his dilemma, the scoundrel picked up the carcass of the antelope and led the way down the hill, while Myrtle followed closely, holding her revolver ready. Once or twice he was tempted to drop his load and take the chances of a bullet, but when he remembered the fall of Anatole he dared not attempt it. Yet his pride as a mountaineer was touched to the quick, and he treasured up the malice of his heart.
“I’ll git even with you yit, my gal,” he thought. “Who’d hev thought she’d turn on a man with shootin’-irons? Thunder! I dassent show my head in camp ef this yer is found out.”
It was nearly an hour’s walk to the cabin, but she would neither suffer him to pause nor lay down his load. At last they went down the path into the valley and he dropped his burden at the door.
“Thanks,” she said. “I was afraid I should be obliged to leave the greater part of my game on the mountain, but you happened along so luckily that I am delighted. Does it occur to you at this moment, Mr. Velveteens, that you are most beautifully sold?”
“You’ve got the whip hand, now, I reckon,” was the answer; “but that won’t always last. One of these yer days my chaince may come, an’ when it does no one, not even Rafe, shill stop me when I want my revenge.”
“I am not yet satisfied that I shall let you go,” she answered. “You came here under false colors, and betrayed those who thought that they were giving you aid in time of need while you were only studying a way to effect the release of Rafe Norris.”