"I'll tell you," he said dejectedly, "women are hell; they ought to be interned when there's business on."
"The little school teacher?"
"The little fool!"
"You trusted her and wrote you were coming, eh?"
"I did."
"Then, my friend, I'm afraid you were the foolish one."
"How was I to know that rustler had been 'making bad medicine'—had put the evil eye on Lucy? Gad, man, she's plumb locoed; she stuck up for him; spun me the most glimmering tale—she's got a dime novel skinned four ways of the pack. According to her the police stood in with Bulldog Carney on a train holdup, and made this poor innocent lamb the goat. They persecuted him, and he had to flee. Now he's given his heart to God, and has gone away to buy a ranch and send for Lucy, where the two of them are to live happy ever after."
"Ma God!" the Scotchman cried with vehemence.
"That bean-headed affair in calico gave him five hundred she's pinched up against her chest for years."
Cameron gasped and stared blankly; even his reverent exclamatory standby seemed inadequate.