“You seem to be scared. Well, you needn’t be! And I’ll say that it doesn’t become you, as a woman who has sworn against me all the terrible things you have. How are you ever going to carry them out, if you weaken like that?”
He reached over, and pulled the bag across to him.
Then he cocked his revolver on the seat beside him.
“This revolver will go off and do you irreparable damage,” he said, his voice hardening, “if you try to interfere with me now. You know, of course, that I’m a desperate man. Please don’t forget it.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Well, I’m going to change myself into a woman. See? If you’ll watch me, you’ll see how it’s done. Where is the key to this thing?”
She hesitated; then, trembling, she gave it to him.
He unlocked the bag and tumbled the contents out on the floor of the stage.
“I ought to have a mirror—— Ah, thanks, here is one!—and it would be better if I had a steady floor under me. Yet needs must, when the devil drives. I’m really expecting my friend Cody to appear now soon; and I must be ready for him.”
He chuckled, when he saw face powders and paints.