Mormon gulped. He seemed summoning his courage, gripping it with both hands.
"Marm," he said desperately, "you can't stop me."
The spinster gasped, met his eyes, flushed and turned away. Sam nudged Mormon with elbow to ribs.
"You dog-gone ol' desperado," he said in a whisper. "I didn't think you had it in you. That the way you treated the first three?"
"No, it ain't," said Mormon, mopping his forehead. "And she ain't the same kind they was, neither. Come on, or we'll lose 'em."
CHAPTER XII
WHITE GOLD
"It was mighty decent of you to take me under your protection," said the young engineer to Sandy. He made hard going of the last word but shot it out with a snap that left his jaw advanced. Sandy told himself that he liked the clean-cut, well-set-up Westlake.