"Did you ever hear me say anything I didn't make good?" demanded the outlaw, turning fiercely upon the girl.
"No-o—not exactly. I've never known you to fall down yet."
"You mean I haven't carried out my pledge to your father?" queried Rogers, irritated by the emphasis Rose placed on the word "yet."
"Uhuh."
This answer aroused the bandit's anger, sending hot flushes to his cheeks.
"That ain't fair, Rose, and you know it. I'd never been caught if I hadn't stopped to place your father where the manhunters could not find him to claim the five thousand reward, dead or alive. Here I've set the whole state by the ears by getting out of jail at Keno so's I could keep my pledge to your daddy—and there ain't been a day during the five years I was behind the bars, I ain't watched my chance—and now you accuse me of laying down. 'Tain't fair, Rosie, 'tain't fair."
Eagerly the scouts drank in the bits of intimate history disclosed by Red's passionate outburst, hoping against hope that he would let fall more of his life's secrets.
But the girl's actions prevented this.
Placing her hand soothingly on the outlaw's arm, she looked into his face.
"Don't talk that way, Red," she breathed.