His face flushed, then paled again.
"I heard you were here, and I have come to see you, to talk with you," he began. "I wish to be friends with you."
She waved him aside.
"Let me pass, if you please."
"Not until you have heard what I have to say. You have done me a great injustice; but I put that by. I have been robbed by persons you know, persons who are no friends of yours, whom I understand you have influence with, and you can help to right matters. It will be worth your while to do it."
She attempted to pass around him; but he stepped before her.
"You might as well listen; for I have come here to talk to you, and I mean to do it. I can show you how important it is for you to aid me--to advise your friends to settle. Now, will you listen?"
"No." She looked him straight in the eyes.
"Oh, I guess you will," he sneered. "It concerns your friend, Mr. Keith, whom you thought so much of. Your friend Keith has placed himself in a very equivocal position. I will have him behind bars before I am done. Wait until I have shown that when he got all that money from the English people he knew that that land was mine, and that he had run the lines falsely on which he got the money."
"Let me pass," said Lois. With her head held high she started again to walk by him; but he seized her by the wrist.