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"Think you can threaten to give me up, do you? 'Fore I'm through

with you you'll wish you had never been born. You'll crawl on

your knees and beg me to kill you."

Such a devil of wickedness she had never seen in human eyes

before. The ruthlessness left no room for appeal. Unless the

courage to tame him lay in her she was lost utterly.

He continued his exultant bragging, blatantly, ferociously.

"I didn't tell you about my escape; how a guard tried to stop me

and I put the son of a gun out of business. There's a price on my

head. D'ye think I'm the man to give you a chance to squeal on

me? D'ye think I'll let a pink-and-white chit send me back to be

strangled?" he screamed.

The stark courage in her rose to the crisis. Not an hour before

she had seen the Texan cow him. He was of the kind would take the

whip whiningly could she but wield it. Her scornful eyes fastened

on him contemptuously, chiseled into the cur heart of him.