"Good gracious!"
"I had to be raised for a boy—it had to be done. What else was possible at the Robbers' Roost?"
"And you're not a boy!"
"God help me, I'm only a girl."
"You, a girl?"
"Oh, don't be hard on me—it ain't my fault! I tried so hard to be a man—but I'm crazy with pain—and I wisht I was daid!"
"But I can't believe—it can't be true. Why, I've seen you ride—the first horseman in Arizona, scout, cowboy, desperado, wanted for robbery and murder—you a girl!"
"Have pity! Don't! Don't talk like that—I'm not so bad as you think—I never robbed—I never——"
"You killed men to save my life. Oh, Curly, I'm so sorry I talked like that—I take it all back. I must have been loco to call you a coward—I wish I'd half your courage! I never knew a woman could be brave; my mother wasn't, and all the girls I've known—they weren't like you. Oh, the things you've seen me do, the things I've said—treating you no better than a boy. Can you ever forgive the way I treated you?"
One little hand stole out and touched him: "Stop—talk no more."