“Because you came here,” said Toppy honestly.
“But why—why——”
Toppy had regained control of himself.
“Why do you think I did it, Miss Pearson?” he asked quietly.
“I—I don’t want to think—what I think,” she stammered.
“And that is that I’m a cad, the sort of a mucker who forces his attentions upon women who are alone.”
“Well—” she looked up with a challenge in her eyes—“you had been drinking, hadn’t you? Could you blame me if I did?”
“Not a bit,” said Toppy. “I’m the one whose to blame. I’m the goat. I don’t suppose I had a right to butt in. Of course I didn’t. I’m a big fool; always have been. I—I just couldn’t stand for seeing you start out for this Hell Camp alone; that’s all. It’s no reason, I know, but—there you are. I’d heard something of the place in the morning and I had a notion it was a pretty tough place. You—you didn’t look as if you were used to anything of the sort——Well,” he wound up desperately, “it didn’t look right, your going off alone among all these roughnecks; and—and that’s why I butted in.”
She made no reply, and Toppy continued:
“I didn’t have any right to do it, I know. I deserve to be suspected——”