Читать книгу Buffalo Bill's Still Hunt; Or, The Robber of the Range онлайн

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“Do you mean it, Ruth?” asked the surprised miner.

“Yes.”

“You are wrong in doing so, very.”

“It may be that I am, but in this case I feel that I must see him. He is an outlaw, it is true. He has committed many crimes as Silk Lasso Sam, the road-agent chief, and yet now he is down, ironed hands and feet, a prisoner at the mercy of his foes. He is under sentence of death, and will soon be led upon the gallows, to die at the end of a rope.

“He will have not one near to cheer his last moments, to breathe one kind word, to utter one word of forgiveness, and he will be thrown into a nameless grave. With all his sins weighing him down, he is yet my brother, and I will not be a coward and desert him in his last moments. No, I sent him word that I would come to him, and I will.”

The earnest argument of the girl touched the miner deeply. He realized just how she felt and suffered, and said:

“I appreciate fully, Ruth, your position and your sorrow, and your kind heart does you credit; but in going to see your brother, to be with him in his last hours, to place him in the grave of a dishonored man, will not your sufferings be increased?”