“Please—please take me to my father!” she begged.
He laughed again harshly.
“You believed that part of it, too, did ye?”
“Please take me to my father!”
“Well, that’s a thing I ain’t thinking of doing. I couldn’t afford to deprive myself of your charming presence, ye know. I’ve taken a fancy to you. My dear, I’m dead in love with you.”
She wanted to scream again.
“You know I told you that once, at your home over there in Scarlet Gulch,” he continued calmly. “You thought I was Buffalo Bill, and you smiled when I said it. I’m the same man, and when I say it now you show a weak disposition and a tendency to holler, which is unkind of you.”
She turned on him in wild desperation. “You must let me out of this house!” she cried. “I won’t stay here. You promised to take me to my father, and——”
“Promises made to a handsome woman are like the proverbial pie crust, made to be broken. I wanted to bring you here.”
“And lied to me?”