"Rhoda, you haven't any idea what you're asking! It isn't a question of forgiveness! You don't get the point of view that you ought! Why, the whole country is worked up over this thing! The newspapers are full of it. Just as Porter says, the Apache's got to be made an example of. We will hunt him down, if it takes a year!"
So far Jack Newman had said nothing. Rhoda looked at him as if he were her last hope.
"Oh, Jack!" she cried. "He was your friend, your dearest friend! And he sent me back! Why, you never would have got me if he hadn't voluntarily let me go! He is wonderful on the trail!"
"So we found!" said DeWitt grimly.
But Rhoda was watching Jack.
"Rhoda," Jack said at last, "I know how you feel. I know what a bully chap Kut-le is. This just about does me up. But what he's done can't be let go. We've got to punish him!"
"'Punish him!'" repeated Rhoda. "Just what do you mean by that?"
"We mean," answered DeWitt, "that when we find him, I'll shoot him!"
"No!" cried Rhoda. "No! Why he sent me back!"
The three men looked at Rhoda uncomfortably and at each other wonderingly. A woman's magnanimity is never to be understood by a man!