“And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor. He that knows better how to tame a shrew, Now let him, speak; ’tis charity to show.” “Would you take me against my will?” “Y’u have said it. What’s your will to me? What I want I take. And I sure want my beautiful shrew.” His half-shuttered eyes gloated on her as he rattled off a couple more lines from the play he had mentioned. “Kate, like the hazel-twig, Is straight and slender, and as brown in hue As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels.” She let a swift glance travel anxiously to the door. “You are in a very poetical mood to-day.” “As befits a bridegroom, my own.” He stepped lightly to the window and tapped twice on the pane. “A signal to bring the horses round. If y’u have any preparations to make, any trousseau to prepare, y’u better set that girl of yours to work.” “I have no preparations to make.” “Coming to me simply as y’u are? Good! We’ll lead the simple life.” Nora, as it chanced, knocked and entered at his moment. The sight of her vivid good looks struck him for the first time. At sight of him she stopped, gazing with parted lips, a double row of pearls shining through. He turned swiftly to the mistress. “Y’u ought not to be alone there among so many men. It wouldn’t be proper. We’ll take the girl along with us.” “Where?” Nora’s parted lips emitted. “To Arden, my dear.” He interrupted himself to look at his watch. “I wonder why that fellow doesn’t come with the horses. They should pass this window.” Bannister, standing jauntily with his feet astride as he looked out of the window, heard someone enter the room. “Did y’u bring round the horses?” he snapped, without looking round. “_No, we allowed they wouldn’t be needed_.” At sound of the slow drawl the outlaw wheeled like a flash, his hand traveling to the hilt of the revolver that hung on his hip. But he was too late. Already two revolvers covered him, and he knew that both his cousin and McWilliams were dead shots. He flashed one venomous look at the mistress of the ranch. “Y’u fooled me again. That lamp business was a signal, and I was too thick-haided to see it. My compliments to y’u, Miss Messiter.” “Y’u are under arrest,” announced his cousin. “Y’u don’t say.” His voice was full of sarcastic admiration. “And you done it with your little gun! My, what a wonder y’u are!” “Take your hand from the butt of that gun. Y’u better relieve him of it, Mac. He’s got such a restless disposition he might commit suicide by reaching for it.” “What do y’u think you’re going to do with me now y’u have got me, Cousin Ned?” “We’re going to turn y’u over to the United States Government.” “Guess again. I have a thing, or two to say to that.” “You’re going to Gimlet Butte with us, alive or dead.” The outlaw intentionally misunderstood. “If I’ve got to take y’u, then we’ll say y’u go dead rather than alive.” “He was going to take Nora and me with him,” Helen explained to her friends.