But I ain't none scared of you. An' now I'm tellin' you why I said
you're a false alarm. I was talkin' to Betty last night. She's read
up a bit, an' I'm parrotin' what she said about you because it's what I
think, too. Your cosmos is all ego. That's what Betty said. Brought
down to cases, what that means is that you've got a bad case of swelled
head. So far as you're concerned there's only one person in the world.
That's you. Nobody else counts. You've been thinkin' about yourself
so much that you can't find time to think about anybody else. There's
other people in the world as good as you--better. Betty's one of them.
She's a good girl an' you an' me'll hitch all right as long as you
don't go to bullyin' her. I reckon that's all."
"Meanin' that you'll let me hang around as long as I'm good," sneered
Calumet in a dangerously soft voice. He was trying to work himself
into a rage, but the effort was futile. Something in Dade's quiet,
matter-of-fact voice had a dulling, cooling effect on him. Besides, he
knew that an attack on Dade would be resented by Betty, and he felt a
strange reluctance toward further antagonizing her. "You Texas folks
are sure clever at workin' your jaws," he sneered, when Dade did not
answer. "But I reckon that lets you out. When I'm lookin' for advice
from women an' kids mebbe I'll call on you an' Betty, but if I don't
you'll understand that I'm followin' my own trail.
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