He stopped, his sentence unfinished. There was no need to alarm her about that old philanderer. Time enough for that if she scratched the surface and found the savage beneath.
"—Won't let me go home," she finished for him.
"But what are you doing here? How did Harrison trap you?"
"I had been strolling with Daisy Ellington after supper. It was not late—hardly dark yet. She stopped at the hotel to talk with Miss Winters and I started to walk home alone. I took the short cut across the empty block just below Brinker's. He was waiting among the cottonwoods there—he and two Mexicans. As soon as he stepped into the light I was afraid."
"Why didn't you cry out?"
"I didn't like to make a scene about nothing. And after that first moment I had no time. He caught hold of me and put his hand across my mouth. Horses were there ready saddled. He lifted me in front of him and kept my mouth covered till we were clear of the town. It didn't matter how much I screamed when we had reached the desert."
"I didn't think even Harrison had the nerve to kidnap an Arizona girl and bring her across the line. If he had happened to meet a bunch of cowpunchers—"
"He didn't start after me. It was you he wanted. But he found out you weren't in town and took me instead. All the way down he talked about you—boasted how he would marry me in spite of you and how he would take you and have Pasquale flay you alive."
Yeager lifted a warning finger. "Remember you have a friend here. Good-night."
He lowered himself quickly, slid down the porch post, and disappeared into the darkness almost instantly.