He bodes no good to such as you." Perhaps--who knows ?--Estelle St.Clair had even thought to trifle with the feelings of Snake le Vasquez, then to scorn him for his presumption.
Although the beautiful New York society girl had remained unsullied in the midst of a city's profligacy, she still liked "to play with fire," as she laughingly said, and at the quiet words of Benson--Two-Gun Benson his comrades of the border called him--she had drawn herself to her full height, facing him in all her blond young beauty, and pouted adorably as she replied, "Thank you! But I can look out for myself." Yet she had wandered on her pony farther than she meant to, and was not without trepidation at the sudden appearance of the picturesque halfbreed, his teeth flashing in an evil smile as he swept off his broad sombrero to her.

Above her suddenly beating heart she sought to chat gayly, while the quick eyes of the outlaw took in the details of the smart riding costume that revealed every line of her lithe young figure.
But suddenly she chilled under his hot glance that now spoke all too plainly.
"I must return to my friends," she faltered.

"They will be anxious." But the fellow laughed with a sinister leer.

"No--ah, no, the lovely senorita will come with me," he replied; but there was the temper of steel in his words.

For Snake le Vasquez, on the border, where human life was lightly held, was known as the Slimy Viper.