“Glad to hear it. I be’n misjudgin’ you, seh, but you’re a white man afteh all. Well, you know the rest of the story: how she held up the stage, how Jack drapped in befo’ our tracks were covered, how smart he worked the whole thing out, and how my little gyurl confessed to him to save me.”
“Yes, I know all that.”
“What kind of a figure do I make in this? First off, I act like a durn fool, and she has to step in to save me. Then I let her tote the worry of it around while I ride off to Mesa. When Jack runs me down, she takes the blame again. To finish up with, she writes you a letter of thanks, jes’ as if the whole fault was hers.”
The old soldier selected a smooth rock and splashed it with tobacco juice before he continued with rising indignation against himself.
“I’m a fine father for a gyurl like that, ain’t I? 170 Up to date I always had an idee I was some sort of a man, but dad gum it! I cayn’t see it hyer. To think of me lettin’ my little gyurl stand the consequences of my meanness. No, Mr. Morse, that’s one too much for Champ Lee. He’s nevah going to touch another drop of whisky long as he lives.”
“Glad to hear it. That’s a square amend to make, one she will appreciate.”
“So I took a pasear up hyer to explain this, and to thank you for yore kindness. Fac’ is, Mr. Morse, it would have jest about killed me if anything had happened to my little ’Lissie. I want to say that if you had a-be’n her brother you couldn’t ’a’ be’n more decent.”
“There was nothing else to do. It happens that I am in her debt. She saved my life once. Besides, I understood the motives for her action when she broke the law, and I honored them with all my heart. Flatray felt just as I did about it. So would any right-thinking man.”
“Well, you cayn’t keep me from sayin’ again that you’re a white man, seh,” the other said with a laugh behind which the emotion of tears lay near.
“That offer of a compromise is still open, Mr. Lee.”