That's what I'm looking for, and there's no man or bunch of men can get between me and what I'm looking for.
Savvee, Hegan? Savvee?"
"What have you done to him?"
Hegan snarled at Dede.
"Hold on there, Larry."
For the first time Daylight's voice was sharp, while all the old lines of cruelty in his face stood forth.
"Miss Mason is going to be my wife, and while I don't mind your talking to her all you want, you've got to use a different tone of voice or you'll be heading for a hospital, which will sure be an unexpected sort of smash.
And let me tell you one other thing. This-all is my doing.
She says I'm crazy, too."
Hegan shook his head in speechless sadness and continued to stare.
"There'll be temporary receiverships, of course," Daylight advised; "but they won't bother none or last long.
What you must do immediately is to save everybody—the men that have been letting their wages ride with me, all the creditors, and all the concerns that have stood by.
There's the wad of land that New Jersey crowd has been dickering for.
They'll take all of a couple of thousand acres and will close now if you give them half a chance.
That Fairmount section is the cream of it, and they'll dig up as high as a thousand dollars an acre for a part of it.
That'll help out some.
That five-hundred acre tract beyond, you'll be lucky if they pay two hundred an acre."
Dede, who had been scarcely listening, seemed abruptly to make up her mind, and stepped forward where she confronted the two men.
Her face was pale, but set with determination, so that Daylight, looking at it, was reminded of the day when she first rode Bob.
"Wait," she said.
"I want to say something.
Elam, if you do this insane thing, I won't marry you.
I refuse to marry you."
Hegan, in spite of his misery, gave her a quick, grateful look.
"I'll take my chance on that," Daylight began.
"Wait!" she again interrupted.
"And if you don't do this thing, I will marry you."
"Let me get this proposition clear."
Daylight spoke with exasperating slowness and deliberation.
"As I understand it, if I keep right on at the business game, you'll sure marry me?
You'll marry me if I keep on working my head off and drinking Martinis?"
After each question he paused, while she nodded an affirmation.
"And you'll marry me right away?"
"Yes."
"To-day?
Now?"
"Yes."
He pondered for a moment.
"No, little woman, I won't do it.
It won't work, and you know it yourself.
I want you—all of you; and to get it I'll have to give you all of myself, and there'll be darn little of myself left over to give if I stay with the business game.
Why, Dede, with you on the ranch with me, I'm sure of you—and of myself.
I'm sure of you, anyway.
You can talk will or won't all you want, but you're sure going to marry me just the same.
And now, Larry, you'd better be going.
I'll be at the hotel in a little while, and since I'm not going a step into the office again, bring all papers to sign and the rest over to my rooms.
And you can get me on the 'phone there any time.
This smash is going through.
Savvee?
I'm quit and done."