Neal looked after her admiringly as she left the room. “Spunky little kitten,” he said to himself. “I like her spirit. I wonder what Christine will say.”
He was not long left in doubt as to Christine’s attitude, for she soon entered the room with the swift directness which was always hers. “You are going to take John away from us,” she said abruptly.
“I am not going to take him,” was the reply. “I reckon he’ll be willing to go without being gagged and bound.”
“Must every one be sacrificed?” asked Christine. “Our father gave up his life in this dreadful land. It has swallowed up Stephen Hayward and now John must go. Must we give up all that we have left? If John is killed what will happen to us, to two defenseless girls alone in this crude country?”
Neal’s face flushed slightly, but he answered quietly, “I’m something of a believer in fatality, Miss Christine. If fate decrees that John must go to his death, he will go as a brave man and not as a coward. He might stay at home and be killed by an Injun or a wildcat and there would be no special glory in it. The chances are as much in his favor if he goes, for all I can see, and it’s something to fall in battle, to die doing one’s duty.”
“I question the duty,” replied Christine. “He brought us here. His first duty is to stand by us and see that we are taken care of.”
Neal bent his steady eyes upon her. “It’s a pity that you ever thought of coming to this crude country as you call it. Any one that feels as you do had better stay at home.”
“I didn’t feel so when we started. I didn’t know what awaited us. I have lost my faith in Texas.” She sat down and dropped her hands listlessly in her lap.
Neal regarded her silently for a minute. “You’re not like those Revolutionary ancestors of yours that you were telling me about the other day; they sent their husbands and brothers to the war with the word that they were to fight to the last lick. But then I don’t know as I blame ye, pore little gal,” he said under his breath. “Allie gone to fetch John?” he asked after a pause.
“Yes.”