“She isn’t here?” was the cool question.
“No. I came here to see her myself, and——”
“Tell me where she is, Denton.”
“Go to the devil!”
“Of course, you warned her that I was coming here this evening, and told her to clear out?”
“Of course, I didn’t.”
“What have you been saying to her about me?”
“Nothing yet.”
“You couldn’t well say to her that I’m what the drunken fools of this town pretend that I am; for she knows that Buffalo Bill has always been a man of honor.”
“I begin to doubt that you are Buffalo Bill,” the youth declared. “I’ve always heard that he was a gentleman, and you’re not; and I’ve always heard that he was an honorable man, and if what I hear now is true, then you’re the blackest scoundrel that ever walked the face of the earth.”