"He wanted you for himself."
"Yes."
"He won't take you back; not if I live. Now listen and don't be afraid. My men believe in me, better still, in my luck. McShay's men want nothing better than a chance to even scores with Ladd. We have the position. Ladd isn't a soldier. He doesn't know this game. I do. He couldn't take the ranch if he had twice as many braves, except at a fearful cost——"
"My own people!" she said, as if it just occurred to her for the first time. "We shall kill our own people!" This time she included him.
"You are my people," he said passionately. "You are my country, my all. Nothing else matters. Go in, Wah-na-gi, and don't be afraid."
"We must not kill our own people. They're your people as well as mine."
"A fight's a fight, Wah-na-gi. Leave it to me."
"I didn't think of this when I called to you. I was tortured, mad, desperate, and I cried out for help. It was a mistake. I—I—yes, I will go back."
"No, that would be horrible; I could not let you go back. We don't know what may happen, but I could not do that. Won't you leave it to me? Trust to me?"
She raised her eyes to him with a look of serene abnegation, of exalted self-surrender, that transported him, then sobered him.