“Won’t make no difference with her,” Kent declared. “She’s always known her own mind; but even so, she’s changed since you saw her last. She defied me yesterday for the first time in her life. The girl’s bewitched. She thinks she’s in love with Johnny Dice.”
“You ain’t tellin’ me any news,” Gallup muttered. “I been suspectin’ that this long time—another reason why I’m here today. You better tell her I’ve come. I want to talk to her.”
Kent got to his feet uneasily. Biting the ends of his mustache he took a turn around his desk.
“Man, I can’t do it!” he exclaimed at last. “This, on top of what we were through yesterday, will turn her against me for life.”
“Well, Jackson, a promise is a promise. You don’t want to forget that in more ways than one you owe this ranch to me. It was me who gave you a start. Whenever you needed help you’ve always come to me. I’m old, I know. I ain’t askin’ her to love me. Love is for young bucks.
“I’m a man of means, now. Mrs. Aaron Gallup will be a somebody in this country long after I’ve cashed in. She’s got youth, she’s pretty, and that’s what I want. When we run down to Frisco folk’ll turn and look twice at her; like as not they’ll have pictures in the papers, too, of her and me. We’ll let ’em know we’re somebody. And that’s what I want. It’s what I’ve been wantin’ all the years I’ve been savin’ pennies and cheatin’ myself out of things no man should be without.”
“But it’s sellin’ her,” Kent groaned. “Sellin’ her like she was a slave. Maybe I’ve been dreamin’ my dreams too. What’s goin’ to happen to me, an old man, without her? I’ve slaved and cheated myself even as you have. It was for her. Don’t smile at me like that. You’re hearin’ the truth. Damn it, I tell you, I’ll let you cut off my right arm before I’ll see her your wife.”
“Well, now, I don’t know about that,” Gallup drawled menacingly. “Right arms ain’t so precious. Maybe you’re forgettin’ that I’m holding your paper for thirty thousand dollars. It’s overdue, too. The way the market is, don’t seem as if there’d be much chance of your payin’ up right off.”
“The ranch is worth five times the amount I owe you.”
“Of course, of course. Tobias consented to the loans, didn’t he? Toby don’t get over his head.”