Arizona Round-Up — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ARIZONA ROUNDUP 93 She shook her head. “Not with an enemy. Pap warned me, Harlan, but I wouldn’t listen. I was the woman who knew it all. The woman who was going to beat men at their own game. The drink would taste bitter.” “I'm sorry about Jed,” he said, and meant it. “I really am. You see, when your father sent that miner on ahead as fast as he could ride to break the news of the holdup and that Newt was dead, some of the boys went on down to Bailey’s cabin on their own. Naturally none of us dreamed that your brother was one of the road agents. Had I known—had you come to me and told me that Jed had gone down there to warn Lance, I'd have stalled them off long enough to let the men get away.” “Why?” she challenged him. “You ought to know, Lil. For your sake. Just as now I'll do anything in the world I possibly can to aid you. I think that much of you.” “That one,” she laughed bitterly, “calls for a small brandy.” She poured into a pony glass and lifted it. “To our friendship and the affection you hold for me.” He felt the bitterness in her words; they stung him to the quick. But she was still a beautiful woman over whom he had proven his mastery, and he still wanted her. “What are you going to do after it’s all over?” he asked her, low-voiced. Three of the vigilantes came in, but Pearson turned and waved them out once more. Noise came from the street: the tramp of feet, loud voices, the mufiled sounds of a horse galloping through the soft dirt. Somewhere outside a man whooped loudly, and laughter followed. She put down the barely tasted liquor. “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I could stay here and fight it out. A few weeks and this terrible thing will be forgotten. Men who hate me today and say I’m running crooked wheels and dice tables will soon begin to remember I’m also a woman, all alone now, and will become sympathetic. They'll also get wise to the fact that the Deacon and his crew are working for you, and in no time I'll have my business back where it was yesterday.” He knew that was true, every word of it. It was something that had not occurred to him before. But he shook his head. comicbooks.com