the one of us, then to the other,
and went out. He did not lock the door after him, and I could hear him
addressing Cortinez outside. The girl started to speak, but I waved my
shackled hand at her for silence. By straining my ears I could just make
out what was said.
"I am going to bed," Hooper said. "It is not necessary to stand guard.
You may get your blankets and sleep on the verandah."
After the old man's footsteps had died, I turned back to the girl
opposite me and looked her over carefully. My first impression of
meekness I revised. She did not look to be one bit meek. Her lips were
compressed, her nostrils wide, her level eyes unsubdued. A person of
sense, I said to myself, well balanced, who has learned when it is
useless to kick against the pricks, but who has not necessarily on that
account forever renounced all kicking. It occurred to me that she must
have had to be pretty thoroughly convinced before she had come to this
frame of mind. When she saw that I had heard all I wanted of the
movements outside, she spoke hurriedly in her low, sweet voice:
"Oh, I am so distressed! This is all my doing! I should have known
better----"
"Now," I interrupted her, decisively, "let's get down to cases. You had
nothing to do with this; nothing whatever. I visited this ranch the
first time out of curiosity, and to-night because I knew that I'd have
to hit first to save my own life. You had no influence on me in either
case."
"You thought this was my room--I wrote you it was," she countered,
swiftly.
"I wanted to see you solely and simply that I might find out how to get
at Hooper. This is all my fault; and we're going to cut out the
self-accusations and get down to cases."
I afterward realized that all this was somewhat inconsiderate and
ungallant and slightly humiliating; I should have taken the part of the
knight-errant rescuing the damsel in distress, but at that moment only
the direct essentials entered my mind.
"Very well," she assented in her repressed tones.
"Do you think he is listening to what we say; or has somebody
listening?"
"I am positive not."
"Why?"
"I lived in this room for two months, and I know every inch of it."
"He might have some sort of a concealed listening hole somewhere, just
the same."
"I am certain he has not. The walls are two feet thick."
"All right; let it go at that. Now let's see where we stand. In the
first place, how do you dope this out?"
"What do you
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