“How do you know?”
“He and another man were on the trail after me to-day. I saw them pass up Moose Creek from a ledge on which I was lying. If I had had a rifle, I would have finished the job; but my carbine was gone. It was too far for a six-gun.”
“But, if you wounded him last night, how could he be trailing you to-day?”
“I reckon it was a flesh wound. His shoulder was tied up, I noticed.” Impatiently he waved Flatray out of the conversation. “I didn’t come here to tell you about him. I got to get out on tonight’s train. This country has grown too hot for me. You’re going with me?”
“No!”
“Yes, by God!”
“I’ll never go with you—never—never!” she cried passionately. “I’m free of the bargain. You broke faith. So shall I.”
She saw his jaw clamp. “So you’re going to throw me down, are you?”
Melissy stood before him, slim and straight, without yielding an inch. She was quite colorless, for 338 he was a man with whose impulses she could not reckon. But one thing she knew. He could never take her away with him and escape. And she knew that he must know it, too.
“If you want to call it that. You tricked me into marrying you. You meant to betray me all the time. Go, while there’s still a chance. I don’t want your blood on my hands.”