“I—I don’t understand you!”
“Well, during the past month or so I’ve tried to make myself plain on that point.”
“And you have had my answer.”
“You couldn’t change it?”
“No.”
“All right, then. I’m here, as I ought to have informed you at once, to tell you that I have found a way by which both you and Ben Stevens may leave this place.”
She took a step toward him eagerly. “Do you mean it?”
“I shouldn’t say it, otherwise. I have talked with the other officers here, and with Buffalo Bill, the scout, who has just come in; and they are of the opinion that it is wrong to hold you and Stevens. I beg you to understand that whatever I did I did believing it the thing I was forced to do, not the thing I wished to do. And now if you’ll go with me I’ll see that you are furnished a horse, and you and Stevens may both leave here as soon as you like.”
She was about to follow him impulsively; but something bade her stop. It may have been something peculiar in his voice, hinting of treachery. Whatever it was, it was as if a wall had been suddenly raised before her and she was warned not to pass it.
“You mean it?” she said, looking at him intently.