"I understand you're a little coward!"
"That's no dream."
"You own to being a coward?"
"Yes. All these years I've tried to play the game, to be a boy, to live a boy's life, but now—I'd rather die, and get it finished."
"Why?"
"I've been off my haid last night and all to-day. This pain has stampeded me, and I'm goin' crazy. To-night the pain is worse. I'll be making fool talk, giving myself away, and you'll find me out. It's better to own up than to be found out."
"To own up what?"
"Oh, don't be hard on me, Jim! I tried so hard! I was born for a boy, I had to be a boy. Don't you see, girls was plumb impossible in a gang of robbers!"
"Have you gone mad?"
"Oh, you cayn't understand, and it's so hard to say." Curly lay face downwards, hiding a shamed face. "My mother must have made a mistake—I wasn't bawn for a boy."