“Neither do I, sir,” I retorted hotly. “One may wish to avoid trouble and still not fear it. I have not come to you with complaint. I merely wish to explain. You are captain of the train and responsible for its conduct. I give you notice that I shall defend myself against insult and annoyance.”
I turned on my heel—sensed poised forms and inquiring faces; and his booming voice stayed me.
“A moment, stranger. Your talk is big. What have you to do with this woman Edna?”
“With Mrs. Montoyo? What I please, if it pleases her, sir. If she claims your protection, very good. Should she claim mine, she’ll have it.” And there, confound it, I had spoken. “But with this, Daniel 235 has nothing to do. I believe that the lady you mention is simply your present guest and my former acquaintance.”
“You err,” he thundered, darkening. “You cannot be expected to see the light. But I say to you, keep away, keep away. I will have no gallivanting, no cozening and smiling and prating and distracting. She must be nothing to you. Never can be, never shall be. Her way is appointed, the instrument chosen, and as a sister in Zion she shall know you not. Now get you gone——” a favorite expression of his. “Get you gone, meddle not hereabouts, and I’ll see to it that you are spared from harm.”
Surprising myself, and perhaps him, I gazed full at him and laughed without reserve or irritation.
“Thank you, Captain,” I heard myself saying. “I am perfectly capable of self-protection. And I expect to remain a friend of Mrs. Montoyo as long as she permits me. For your bluster and Daniel’s I care not a sou. In fact, I consider you a pair of damned body-snatchers. Good-evening.”
Then out I stormed, boiling within, reckless of opposition—even courting it; but met none, Daniel least of all (for he was elsewhere), until as I passed on along the lined-up wagons I heard my name uttered breathlessly.
“Mr. Beeson.”
It was not My Lady; her I had not glimpsed. The gentle English girl Rachael had intercepted me. She 236 stood between two wagons, whither she had hastened.