The audacity of the request almost tied the colonel’s sharp old tongue. For a moment he stood with his mouth open, his face red in the gathering storm of his sudden passion.
“Sir!” said he, in amazed, unbelieving voice.
“There are my credentials—they will bear investigation,” Macdonald said.
“Damn your credentials, sir! I’ll have nothing to do with them, you blackguard, you scoundrel!”
“I ask you to consider—”
“I can consider nothing but the present fact that you are accused of deeds of outlawry and violence, and are an outcast of society, even the crude society of this wild country, sir. No matter who you are or whence you sprung, the evidence in this country is against you. You are a brigand and a thief, sir—this act of barbaric impetuosity in itself condemns you—no civilized man would have the effrontery to force himself into my presence in such a manner and make this insane demand.”
“I am exercising a gentleman’s prerogative, Colonel Landcraft.”
“You are a vulture aspiring to soar among eagles, sir!”
“You have heard only the cattlemen’s side of the story, Colonel Landcraft,” said Macdonald, with patience and restraint. “You know that every man who attempts to build a fence around his cabin in this country, and strikes a furrow in the ground, is a rustler according to their creed.”