"There ain't no man livin' I'm afraid of, and there ain't no man in the country strong enough to lay a finger on me, see. I could beat every son of a gun in Alberta to a pulp."
"I don't doubt that. You look as if you might have the strength of a gorilla; but then where a hand will not serve a rope will, and you know it will be short work for your own men to hang you to a tree when young Cyril Stanley ropes you. Now I've talked to you enough. You get off my place, or I'll put a shot in that ugly fist of yours that'll lame you for the rest of your days."
He had remounted and she laughed at his haste; yet as he rode off, the venomous expression on his face turned her heart cold with a new fear, and her ears rang ominously with his parting words.
"So long, old hen, you'll sing another tune when we meet again."
CHAPTER XXIV
"Jake, I want you to ride like 'hell on fire' to Springbank, where you'll find Dr. McDermott. Ask at the post office for him, and you may meet him on the trail. Don't spare Daisy, even if you have to kill her riding. Leave her at Springbank to rest up, and come back with the Doc. And Jake, if you get back by tomorrow night, I'll—I'll give you a whole pound of brown sugar and a can of molasses. Now skedaddle, and for God's sake, don't fail us."
"Me go! Me fly on the air!" cried the breed excitedly. Without saddle or bridle—nothing but a halter rope, Jake was on the Indian broncho, and was off like a flash over the trail.
Angella concealed her fears from the white and trembling Nettie.