Neale saw and felt his dominance over her.
“It is NEVER too late!” he responded, with all his force. “I can prove that.”
She looked at him mutely. The ghost of another girl stood there instead of the wild Ruby of Benton.
“Pard, you’re drunk shore!” ejaculated Larry, as he towered over them and gave his belt a hitch. The cowboy sensed events.
“I’ve annoyed you more than once,” said Neale. “This’s the last.... So tell me the truth.... Could I take you away from this life?”
“Take me?... How—man?”
“I—I don’t know. But somehow.... I’d hold it—as worthy—to save a girl like you—ANY girl—from hell.”
“But—how?” she faltered. The bitterness, the irony, the wrong done by her life, was not manifest now.
“You refused my plan with Larry.... Come, let me find a home for you—with good people.”
“My God—he’s not in earnest!” gasped the girl to her women friends.