Page:BM Bower - Her Prairie Knight.djvu/264

 "No, he didn't—but I—you struck him first"

"Hitting a man with your fist is one thing," said Rowdy with decision. "Shooting at him from ambush is another."

"Harry shouldn't have done that," she admitted with dignity. "But why wouldn't you take a drink vith him? Not that I approve of drinking—I wish Harry wouldn't do such things—but he said it was an insult the way you refused."

"Jessie"

"Miss Conroy, please."

"Jessie"—he repeated the name stubbornly—"I think we'd better drop that subject. You don't understand the case; and, anyway, I didn't come here to discuss Harry. Our trouble is long standing, and if I insulted him you ought to know I had a reason. I never came whining to you about him, and it don't speak well for him that he hot-footed over to you with his version. I suppose he'd heard about me—er—going to see you, and wanted to queer me. I hope you'll take my word for it, Jessie, that I've never harmed him; all the trouble he's made for himself, one way and another.

"But what I came over for to-day concerns just you and me. I wanted to tell you that—to ask you 258