“The old man sent you to tell me that, did he?” Hard and bitter came the voice of the young man out of the growing darkness.
“No, he didn’t. He doesn’t know I’m here. But he and your sister have done more for me than I ever can pay. That’s why I’m telling you this.”
Sam answered gruffly, as a man does when he is moved, “Much obliged, Curly, but I reckon I can look out for myself.”
“Just what I thought, and in September I have to go to the penitentiary. Now I have mortgaged it away, my liberty seems awful good to me.”
“You’ll get off likely.”
“Not a chance. They’ve got me cinched. But with you it’s different. You haven’t fooled away your chance yet. There’s nothing to this sort of life. The bunch up here is no good. Soapy don’t mean right by you, or by any young fellow he trails with.”
“I’ll not listen to anything against Soapy. He took me in when my own father turned against me.”
“To get back at your father for sending him up the road.”
“That’s all right. He has been a good friend to me. I’m not going to throw him down.”
“Would it be throwing him down to go back to your people?”