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 "I did throw out a hint on that point, I own," said Gedge, "and you are not as young as I was then, and ought to hev the sabe to spot the ace right off. It was the girl."

"The English girl he was to get wedded to?" asked Pillsbury.

"What other, my son?" asked the Georgian. "She made a coward of him."

"Do you reckon she said he warn't to kill no more people, or else she wouldn't come into the firm?"

"Nothin' of the sort," said Keno. "My notion is a simple one, and it is as clear to me as daylight. Smith was plump crazy about thishyer girl, and wouldn't run no risks of not marryin' her."

"I see, to bee sure," said Pillsbury, who was a bachelor and notoriously indifferent to the charms of women. "I see. It's as clear as mud. I'd like to see the female beauty that would hold back my gun if someone smote me over the cabeza. I'd rather be an honoured if shot-up corpse than be kissed and canoodled by the entire female sect with any pretensions to beauty."