“No. He shunned me.”
“Listen,” I said. “Suppose while you were on guard he had whispered, 'Get me off'—would you have done it?”
“No, sir!” said the Virginian, hotly.
“Then what do you want?” I asked. “What did you want?”
He could not answer me—but I had not answered him, I saw; so I pushed it farther. “Did you want indorsement from the man you were hanging? That's asking a little too much.”
But he had now another confusion. “Steve stood by Shorty,” he said musingly. “It was Shorty's mistake cost him his life, but all the same he didn't want us to catch—”
“You are mixing things,” I interrupted. “I never heard you mix things before. And it was not Shorty's mistake.”
He showed momentary interest. “Whose then?”
“The mistake of whoever took a fool into their enterprise.”
“That's correct. Well, Trampas took Shorty in, and Steve would not tell on him either.”