Jack winced. He looked over her shoulder at MacQueen, taking it all in
with an air of pleasant politeness. And one look was enough to tell him
that there was no hope for him. The outlaw had the complacent manner of a
cat which has just got at the cream. That Melissy loved him would be an
additional reason for wiping him off the map. And in that instant a fierce
joy leaped up in Flatray and surged through him, an emotion stronger than
the fear of death. She loved him. MacQueen could not take that away from
him.
"It's all a mistake," Melissy went on eagerly. "Of course they can't blame
you for what Lieutenant O'Connor did. It is absurd--ridiculous."
"Certainly." MacQueen tugged at his little black mustache and kept his
black eyes on her constantly. "That's not what we're blaming him for. The
indictment against your friend is that he interfered when it wasn't his
business."
"But it was his business. Don't you know he's sheriff? He had to do it."
Melissy turned to the outlaw impetuously.
"So. And I have to play my hand out, too. It wipes out Mr. Flatray. Sorry,
but business is business."
"But--but----" Melissy grew pale as the icy fear gripped her heart that
the man meant to go on with the crime. "Don't you see? He's the sheriff?"
"And I never did love sheriffs," drawled MacQueen.
The girl repeated herself helplessly. "It was his sworn duty. That was how
he looked at it."
A ghost of an ironic smile flitted across the face of the outlaw chief.
"Rosario's sworn duty is to avenge her son's death. That is how she looks
at it. The rest of us swore the oath with her."
"But Lieutenant O'Connor had the law back of him. This is murder!"
"Not at all. It is the law of the valley--a life for a life."
"But---- Oh, no--no--no!"
"Yes."
The finality of it appalled her. She felt as if she were butting her head
against a stone wall. She knew that argument and entreaty were of no
avail, yet she desperately besought first one and then another of them to
save the prisoner. Each in turn shook his head. She could see that none of
them, save Rosario, bore him a grudge; yet none would move to break the
valley oath. At the last, she was through with her promises and her
prayers. She had spent them all, and had come up against the wall of blank
despair.