“If he is innocent, yes, daddy.”
“He killed your brother.”
“That is what the jury decided. The law was satisfied with the penalty.”
“I’m not! That man shot my son. For what he did to you personally, I don’t see how you can even speak a word for him, Jane. He don’t deserve any consideration. Marsh, the dirty sneak, pulled his wires and got Nolan free to help him break all of us. Satisfied! My God, I don’t understand you. You don’t mean to say that you still care for Blaze Nolan!”
“It isn’t that, daddy. The past is buried deep, as far as Blaze and myself are concerned. But I don’t believe Blaze would ever carry out Kendall Marsh’s orders, not even to keep out of prison. He knew I had heard everything that was said that night between him and Marsh. He knew that in a short time everybody in Painted Valley would know it. And still he came back here.”
“Brazen nerve, I tell yuh, Jane.”
“Yes, he has nerve, daddy.”
“He shore has. But Painted Valley will deal with him. And we’ll deal with Kendall Marsh, too. Wait until Painted Valley finds out that Marsh intends to rustle our cattle. By God, we’ll hang ’em all on the same rope! So he intends to steal my cattle and force me to the wall on that mortgage, eh?”
“Why not sell your cattle now, daddy?”
“It’ll break me, Jane. The price is so low that I might, if I was lucky, get enough to take up that mortgage. But we’d be broke. No, I’ll take a chance; wait for a higher price. I’m not fighting in the dark now. Marsh has showed his cards. Nolan was his ace-in-the-hole, but we know what he’s got now. Tell Harry to come up here as soon as he comes, Jane; I want to see him; we’ve waited long enough.”