“Chadron refused to make settlement with him for the killin’ he done because he didn’t git Macdonald. Thorn told Alan that with his own bloody tongue.”
Lassiter retailed to her eager ears the story of Macdonald’s capture of Thorn, and his fight with Chadron’s men when they came to set the old slayer free, as Lassiter supposed.
“They turned him loose,” said he, “and you know 179 now what I meant when I said Chadron’s chickens has come home to roost.”
“Yes, I know now.” She turned, and looked back. Remorse was heavy on her for the injustice she had done Macdonald that day, and shame for her sharp words bowed her head as she rode at old Tom Lassiter’s hand.
“He’ll run the old devil down ag’in,” Tom spoke confidently, as of a thing that admitted no dispute, “and take that young woman home if he finds her livin’. Many thanks he’ll git for it from them and her. Like as not she’ll bite the hand that saves her, for she’s a cub of the old bear. Well, let me tell you, colonel’s daughter, if she was to live a thousand years, and pray all her life, she wouldn’t no more than be worthy at the end to wash that man’s feet with her tears and dry ’em on her hair, like that poor soul you’ve read about in the Book.”
Frances slowed her horse as if overcome by a sudden indecision, and turned in her saddle to look back again. Again she had let him go away from her misunderstood, his high pride hurt, his independent heart too lofty to bend down to the mean adjustment to be reached through argument or explanation. One must accept Alan Macdonald for what his face proclaimed him to be. She knew that now. He was not of the mean-spirited who walk among men making apology for their lives.
“He’s gone on,” said Lassiter, slowing his horse to her pace.
“I’m afraid I was hasty and unjust,” she confessed, struggling to hold back her tears.
“Yes, you was,” said Lassiter, frankly, “but everybody on the outside is unjust to all of us up here. We’re kind of outcasts because we fence the land and plow it. But I want to tell you, Macdonald’s a man amongst men, ma’am. He’s fed the poor and lifted up the afflicted, and he’s watched with us beside our sick and prayed with us over our dead. We know him, no matter what folks on the outside say. Well, we’ll have to spur up a little, ma’am, for we’re in a hurry to git back.”