"No," grumbled Bud, "you don't know them rebels. You've been shut up in a house all the time—if you'd been through what I have in the last six months you'd understand what I mean."
"If Phil were here, he'd take me!" countered Gracia, and then Bud lost his head.
"Yes," he burst out, "that's jest what's the matter with the crazy fool! That's jest why he's up across the line now a hollering for me to save his girl! He's brave, is he? Well, why don't he come down, then, and save you himself? Because he's afraid to! He's afraid of getting shot or going up against Manuel del Rey. By grab! it makes me tired the way you people talk! If he'd done what I told him to in the first place he wouldn't have got into this jack-pot!"
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Gracia, aghast. "Why, what is the matter with you? And what did you tell him to do?"
"I told him to mind his own business," answered Hooker bluntly.
"And what did he say?"
"He said he'd try anything—once!"
Bud spat out the phrase vindictively, for his blood was up and his heart was full of bitterness.
"Oh, dear!" faltered Gracia. "And so you do not think that Phil is brave?"
"He's brave to start things," sneered Bud, "but not to carry 'em through!"