Presently you will be leaving Laramie. I can not try you by court
martial, for you are a civilian. In short, all I can say to you is to
go, with the hope that you may never again cross our lives."
I looked at him a time, silently, hating not him personally as much as I
hated all the world. But presently I asked him, "Have you no word for me
from her?"
"Miss Meriwether has no word for you," he answered, sternly, "nor ever
will have. You are no longer necessary in her plans."
"Ah, then," said I, "you have changed your own mind mightily."
He set his lips together in his grim fashion. "Yes," said he, "I have
changed my mind absolutely. I have just come from a very trying
interview. It is not necessary for me to explain to you the full nature
of it--"
"Then she has sent for me?"
"She will never send for you, I have said."
"But listen. At least, I have brought her back to you safe and sound.
Setting aside all my own acts in other matters, why can you not remember
at least so much as that? Yet you treat me like a dog. I tell you, I
shall not leave without word from her, and when I leave I shall make no
promises as to when I shall or shall not come back.
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