Louisa sat silently listening, and after waiting a minute for a response the man went on. “Your mother had fa’r skin, brown ha’r an’ eyes. She was a fine figger, but a leetle tetchy in disposition. She was fond of me, yes, Lou was, and I was good to her, ain’t she said so?” Louisa nodded silently.
The man continued. “Mebbe ef I’d stayed things might hev been diff’rent, but, no, I reckon I never could hev done as well as I’m a-doin’ here. Now, I dare say ye ain’t got a scrap of yer dad’s writin’? Ef ye hev and I could git my hands free I’d show ye my fist so ye could compare the two, ef ye don’t believe me.” Then suddenly. “Why, shucks, gal, what on airth do ye reckon I’d want to claim a strange gal fer? Ye ain’t so purty; ye ain’t no fortin; ye ain’t no prospicks. What on airth would I be tellin’ ye all this fer ef I didn’t hev some natrel affection and wanted ye jest because yer my own flesh an’ blood? Now, look-a-here, you come to yer dad. He ain’t so terble po’ly off, and maybe he’ll git together sompin’ more to leave ye, and ye won’t be destitute when he’s gone.”
Louisa helplessly twisted her fingers together. She began to believe the man was speaking the truth, but it was hard to readjust her attitude of mind. The father of her affections was a hero, a soldier, one whom she reverenced and whose name was enshrined with that of her mother in a fragrant memory. How could she accept this old man, horse thief and perhaps worse? “But my father was a soldier, an honorable man who died for Texas,” she quavered, her beliefs dying hard.
“Well, if I didn’t die for Texas, I’m like to die of her,” remarked Cyrus, “especially ef I don’t git out of this. I was a soldier all right an’ shed my blood. I was reported dead. That’s all true enough.”
“But now—now you are a horse thief.” Louisa spoke with passionate reproach.
“Who says I am?” said Cyrus coolly.
“I do. Why, you can’t deny it. Didn’t we catch you in the very act of stealing our horses?”
“Whose horse did ye see me takin’ away? Was it yourn?”
“No, it wasn’t mine.”
“Was it either of them other gals’?”