I was a man, or a partways
man, till I met up with you tonight, and now I'm a houn'-dog that's done my
partner dirt! God amighty, what made me do it?"
He beat his knuckles against his forehead.
"What you've done you can't undo," answered the sheriff. "Vic, I've seen
gents do considerable worse than you've done and come clean afterwards.
You're goin' to get off for what you've done to Blondy, and you're goin' to
live straight afterwards. You're goin' to get married and you're goin' to
play white. Why, man, I had to use you as far as I could. But you think I
wanted you to bring me out Barry? You couldn't look Betty square in the
face if you'd done what you set out to do. Now, I ain't pressin' you, but I
done some scouting while you was away, and I heard four men's voices in
the house. Can you tell me who's there?"
"You've played square, Pete," answered Vic hoarsely, "and I'll do my part.
Go down and get on your hosses and ride like hell; because in ten minutes
you're goin' to have three bad ones around your necks."
A mutter came from the rest of the posse, for this was rather more than
they had planned ahead.
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