Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/307

 Rh "Why I am here is no business of yours," I went on coldly. "But I am the officer who escaped your gang in the mountains three nights ago; and I am the officer who was at the Harwood house when Anse, and his precious crew of cutthroats, broke in."

"The feller who did up Parson Nichols?"

"Yes."

"An' yer say yer married ter the girl? Who ever married yer?"

"Nichols did. He never told you that part of the story, I reckon? He thought it might prejudice Anse against him. Well, this is the way it was, Cowan. The lady realized that her choice lay between myself and Anse, and must have considered me the lesser of two evils."

"An'—an' Pop Nichols married yer, while—while Anse was a breakin' in?"

"Exactly—rather romantic, wasn't it?"

He burst into a harsh laugh, not altogether pleasant.

"Romantic—hell! But it wus som' joke on Anse. Why he's out huntin' after her now—"

He stopped, cursing fiercely to himself; but I saw fit to follow the lead given.

"So that is what he is up to? He and his outfit passed us just this side of Benton's ford. And they were bound for Lewisburg, you say?"