I'll tell him so as soon as he comes to himself and knows
what has happened."
CHAPTER XIX.
A CRUSHING BLOW.
Buck Badger stared at a letter in a familiar handwriting which had come
to his room in the afternoon mail. He had delivered to Donald Pike that
threatening talk the night before, when Pike came back to the land of
sentient things after that awful choking.
The infliction of this punishment on Pike, and the feeling that Winnie
would stand by him in spite of everything, had so satisfied the
Westerner that he had been in an uncommonly comfortable frame of mind,
in spite of the fact that the powerful opposition of Fairfax Lee was yet
to be overcome. With Winnie true, and time and youth in their favor,
there seemed no good reason why he should be in the dumps.
But the letter at which he now gazed with starting eyes and anguished
face! It was from Winnie herself, and what it said was enough to make
the Kansan's brain reel:
"MR. BUCK BADGER: Father knows that we met last night, and he is
much displeased, as he has a right to be. I am very sorry I said to
you the things I did, for we can never be anything more to each
other. I have had time to think more clearly since I saw you, and
this is my decision.
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