“But we had quarrels, in spite of the fact that I loved her better than any other woman I’d ever seen, and then, too, I got jealous of the chief here, old Fire Top. We had a regular duel about her, me and him, on horseback, with lances, and that’s how I got this beauty mark.”
He tapped the scar significantly.
“The fight happened out in the hills beyond the town, and he left me here for dead. When I came to myself, I was a bit hazy mentally, and I cut out, without trying to get back. I feared, too, that old Fire Top would kill me, after what had happened. And she had turned against me. So I fled.
“That was a good while ago. I shan’t go into all the details—it ain’t necessary. But I hit out for the white man’s country, and though I knew there was gold here aplenty, I never cared to come back to try to get any of it, for what is gold if you have to pay your life for it.
“I roamed round after that, here, there, and everywhere, and done all sorts of work, and the years slipped past. I kept my own counsel. I still loved this woman, and I knew if I spread round a report of the gold in here adventurers would crowd in, and maybe the Toltecs here would be annihilated and the woman killed, and I didn’t want that to happen. I had come to like a good many of these reds, and, as I said, I loved the woman, though I wasn’t sure that I’d ever see her again.
“A month or so ago I met one of the Red Feathers near the town of Cochise—you know where that is—and he told me the woman was dead. He lied to me, as I know now, because he was afraid I’d try to come back, and he didn’t want it. But I took his word for it.
“That knocked me out—I went all to pieces; and in Cochise, and in Skyline, I simply went on a spree that came nigh being my last. You know about that.
“And you know how I chanced to set out with you for this place. When you asked me what I knew about these Toltecs, and put it up to me, it came to me that here was a chance to do a bit of good, in return for all the wrong I’ve done, and also to find out about how the woman had died, and all that, maybe. I still thought she was sure dead. And—I didn’t want any more of that child-stealing business to go on. I’ll tell you soon about that—all about it.
“I didn’t intend to desert you—I meant to play true blue, and when it happened I felt that it wasn’t really desertion. She came to me in the camp, when all were asleep, and woke me up, and I thought it was her spirit, or that I was dreaming, and I got up when she motioned to me and walked out on the blanket she put down, and then I got on the horse she had and come here with her.
“If I was to die this minute, Cody, I couldn’t help doing that!” He looked appealingly at the scout. “I couldn’t help it, and maybe I didn’t want to help it, and I ain’t even sorry now, for, you see, I have got her again, and she isn’t dead.”