"Then it seems that it is just you and I, Kid, who have got to settle
this little affair," he announced, firmly. "I 'll have my say about
it, and then you can uncork your feelings. I rather imagine I have n't
very much legal right in the premises, but I 've got a sort of moral
grip on you by reason of having pulled you out alive from that canyon
yonder, and I propose to play this game to the limit. You say your
mother is dead, and the man who raised you is dead, and, so far as
either of us know, there is n't a soul anywhere on earth who possesses
any claim over you, or any desire to have. Then, naturally, the whole
jack-pot is up to me, provided I 've got the cards. Now, Kid, waving
your prejudice aside, I ain't just exactly the best man in this world
to bring up a girl like you and make a lady out of her. I thought
yesterday that maybe we might manage to hitch along together for a
while, but I 've got a different think coming to-day. There 's no use
disfiguring the truth. I 'm a gambler, something of a fighter on the
side, and folks don't say anything too pleasant about my peaceful
disposition around these settlements; I have n't any home, and mighty
few friends, and the few I have got are nothing to boast about. I
reckon there 's a cause for it all. So, considering everything, I 'm
about the poorest proposition ever was heard of to start a young
ladies' seminary. The Lord knows old Gillis was bad enough, but I 'm a
damned sight worse. Now, some woman has got to take you in hand, and I
reckon I 've found the right one."
"Goin' to get married, Bob?"
"Not this year; it's hardly become so serious as that, but I 'm going
to find you a good home here, and I 'm going to put up plenty of stuff,
so that they 'll take care of you all right and proper."
The dark eyes never wavered as they looked steadily into the gray ones,
but the chin quivered slightly.
"I reckon I 'd rather try it alone," she announced stubbornly. "Maybe
I might have stood it with you, Bob Hampton, but a woman is the limit."
Hampton in other and happier days had made something of a study of the
feminine nature, and he realized now the utter impracticability of any
attempt at driving.