“I don’t. Neither does Nels nor Nick Steele. And we know Don Carlos and the Greasers. Look how the vaqueros chased Flo for you!”
“What do you think, then?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“But, Stewart, I would like to know. If it is about me, surely I ought to know,” protested Madeline. “What reason have Nels and Nick to suspect Don Carlos of plotting to abduct me?”
“I suppose they’ve no reason you’d take. Once I heard Nels say he’d seen the Greaser look at you, and if he ever saw him do it again he’d shoot him.”
“Why, Stewart, that is ridiculous. To shoot a man for looking at a woman! This is a civilized country.”
“Well, maybe it would be ridiculous in a civilized country. There’s some things about civilization I don’t care for.”
“What, for instance?”
“For one thing, I can’t stand for the way men let other men treat women.”
“But, Stewart, this is strange talk from you, who, that night I came—”