Ladd's eyes sought Gale's face.
"Son, you ain't bull-headed like Jim. You'll see the sense of it.
There's Nell a-waitin' back at Forlorn River. Think what it means
to her! She's a damn fine girl, Dick, an' what right have you to
break her heart for an old worn-out cowpuncher? Think how she's
watchin' for you with that sweet face all sad an' troubled, an'
her eyes turnin' black. You'll go, son, won't you?"
Dick shook his head.
The ranger turned his gaze upon Thorne, and now the keen, glistening
light in his gray eyes had blurred.
"Thorne, it's different with you. Jim's a fool, an' young Gale has
been punctured by choya thorns. He's got the desert poison in his
blood. But you now--you've no call to stick--you can find that
trail out. It's easy to follow, made by so many shod hosses. Take
your wife an' go....Shore you'll go, Thorne?"
Deliberately and without an instant's hesitation the calvaryman
replied "No."
Ladd then directed his appeal to Mercedes. His face was now
convulsed, and his voice, though it had sunk to a whisper, was
clear, and beautiful with some rich quality that Gale had never
heard in it.
"Mercedes, you're a woman. You're the woman we fought for. An'
some of us are shore goin' to die for you. Don't make it all for
nothin'. Let us feel we saved the woman. Shore you can make Thorne
go. He'll have to go if you say. They'll all have to go. Think of
the years of love an' happiness in store for you.
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