“He’ll never care a snap for her as long as you are alive,” retorted the old lady.  “I’m sorry now that I ever let you go with him so much.  He seems to be getting more and more determined to make you marry him whether or no.  He is jealous of Mr. Westerfelt.”  Mrs. Floyd lowered her voice.  “If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have fought him as he did.  That is at the bottom of it, daughter, and now that he is a regular outlaw I am awfully uneasy.  If I ever get a chance, I’m going to convince him that it is useless for him to worry you as he does.  I’d rather see you in your grave than married to a man like that.”

Chapter IX

It was a week before John Westerfelt was strong enough to leave his room in the hotel.  Inflammation of his wound had set in, and at one time his condition was thought to be quite critical.

One day Luke Bradley came in his buggy to drive him out to his house.

“Marthy won’t heer to a refusal,” he said.  “She’s powerful’ troubled.  She ’lowed ef we’d ‘a’ made you stay with us you’d not ‘a’ been apt to ‘a’ met Wambush that day, an’ ‘a’ been laid up like this.  She’s jest dyin’ to git to cook things fer you an’ doctor you up.”

“I’ll go and stay a day, anyway,” promised Westerfelt.  He glanced at Harriet Floyd, who stood behind the curtains looking out of the window.  “I don’t need any finer treatment than I’ve had, Luke.  Miss Harriet’s been better than a sister to me.  She saved my life the other night, too.  If she hadn’t interfered that gang would have nabbed me as sure as preaching, and I was unarmed and too weak to stand rough handling.”

Harriet came from the window.  She took the roll of blankets that Bradley had brought and held one of them before the fire.

“It’s chilly out to-day,” she said.  “You’d better wrap him up well, Mr. Bradley.”

Bradley did not reply.  He heard a noise outside, and went out hastily to see if his horse was standing where he had left him.  Westerfelt dragged himself from his chair and stood in front of the fire.  He had grown thinner during his confinement, and his clothes hung loosely on him.

“You have been good to me,” he repeated, in a low tone, “and I wish I could do something to pay you back.”  She said nothing.  She bent over and felt the blanket to see if it were scorching, and then turned the other side to the fire.

“Mrs. Bradley is a fine nurse,” she said, presently.  “She’ll take good care of you.  Besides, she has a better claim on you than we—­mother and I—­have; she has known you longer.”