"Para sirvir usted" ("At your service"), he murmured.
"Don't try to start anything. I'll have you covered every second."
"I believe you. It won't be necessary to demonstrate, ma'am."
The cowpuncher carried his friend out from the cave and put him down gently in the sand.
"Why, he's only a boy!" she cried in surprise.
"He was man enough to go up against half a dozen 'Paches alone to save
Pauline Roubideau," Billie said simply.
She looked up with quick interest. "I've heard that story. Is it true?"
"It's true. And he was man enough to fight it out to a finish against two bad men yesterday."
"But he can't be more than eighteen." She watched for a moment the flush of fever in his soft cheeks. "Did he really kill Dave and Hugh Roush? Or was it you?"
"He did it."