"How in the world did you offend her so?" asked Helen. "Bo is furious. I never saw her so angry as that."
"Miss Nell, it was jest this way," began Carmichael. "Shore Bo's knowed I was in love with her. I asked her to marry me an' she wouldn't say yes or no.... An', mean as it sounds--she never run away from it, thet's shore. We've had some quarrels--two of them bad, an' this last's the worst."
"Bo told me about one quarrel," said Helen. "It was--because you drank--that time."
"Shore it was. She took one of her cold spells an' I jest got drunk."
"But that was wrong," protested Helen.
"I ain't so shore. You see, I used to get drunk often--before I come here. An' I've been drunk only once. Back at Las Vegas the outfit would never believe thet. Wal, I promised Bo I wouldn't do it again, an' I've kept my word."
"That is fine of you. But tell me, why is she angry now?"
"Bo makes up to all the fellars," confessed Carmichael, hanging his head. "I took her to the dance last week--over in the town-hall. Thet's the first time she'd gone anywhere with me. I shore was proud.... But thet dance was hell. Bo carried on somethin' turrible, an' I--"
"Tell me. What did she do?" demanded Helen, anxiously. "I'm responsible for her. I've got to see that she behaves."
"Aw, I ain't sayin' she didn't behave like a lady," replied Carmichael. "It was--she--wal, all them fellars are fools over her--an' Bo wasn't true to me."
"My dear boy, is Bo engaged to you?"
"Lord--if she only was!" he sighed.
"Then how can you say she wasn't true to you? Be reasonable."
"I reckon now, Miss Nell, thet no one can be in love an' act reasonable," rejoined the cowboy. "I don't know how to explain, but the fact is I feel thet Bo has played the--the devil with me an' all the other fellars."
"You mean she has flirted?"
"I reckon."
"Las Vegas, I'm afraid you're right," said Helen, with growing apprehension. "Go on. Tell me what's happened."
"Wal, thet Turner boy, who rides for Beasley, he was hot after Bo," returned Carmichael, and he spoke as if memory hurt him. "Reckon I've no use for Turner. He's a fine-lookin', strappin', big cow-puncher, an' calculated to win the girls. He brags thet he can, an' I reckon he's right. Wal, he was always hangin' round Bo. An' he stole one of my dances with Bo. I only had three, an' he comes up to say this one was his; Bo, very innocent--oh, she's a cute one!--she says, 'Why, Mister Turner--is it really yours?' An' she looked so full of joy thet when he says to me, 'Excoose us, friend Carmichael,' I sat there like a locoed jackass an' let them go. But I wasn't mad at thet. He was a better dancer than me an' I wanted her to have a good time. What started the hell was I seen him put his arm round her when it wasn't just time, accordin' to the dance, an' Bo--she didn't break any records gettin' away from him. She pushed him away--after a little--after I near died. Wal, on the way home I had to tell her. I shore did. An' she said what I'd love to forget. Then--then, Miss Nell, I grabbed her--it was outside here by the porch an' all bright moonlight--I grabbed her an' hugged an' kissed her good. When I let her go I says, sorta brave, but I was plumb scared--I says, 'Wal, are you goin' to marry me now?'"