"It's—it's wrong!"
The bandit smiled his winning smile. "Whose beeziness what we do if we like for do him?"
"Please don't take me with you!" Lucia appealed. Why had Morgan Pell ever brought her to this border line? She might have known better than to come. It was no place for a young and attractive woman.
"You don't wish to go?" Lopez questioned, hardly believing that any pretty woman could resist his charms.
"No," cried Lucia.
"You mean you wish to stay married wiz one man?"
"Ye-es," Lucia faltered.
"Never no life? Never no fun? Ha! If you was old, fat—zen, perhaps. But young, beautiful! For why was you born if you no wish to leeve?"
"But I do wish to live!" Lucia cried in desperation; and her hands went out in an attitude of supplication.
Lopez appraised her once more. "But when I come along an' show you 'ow you raise 'ell and say no. Ees great honor to be took by Pancho Lopez into Mexico. Like 'ow you say, ze decoration for ze chest," and he indicated the spot on his coat where a war medal might be placed.