It can do no good," interposed Jim.
"Why not?
We couldn't be worse off," answered Joe.
"I'll git her, I'll git her agin," panted Girty.

"I'll keep her, an' she'll love me." The spectacle of this perverted wretch speaking as if he had been cheated out of love was so remarkable, so pitiful, so monstrous, that for a moment Joe was dumbfounded.
"Bah! You white-livered murderer!" Joe hissed.

He well knew it was not wise to give way to his passion; but he could not help it.

This beast in human guise, whining for love, maddened him.

"Any white woman on earth would die a thousand deaths and burn for a million years afterward rather than love you!" "I'll see you killed at the stake, beggin' fer mercy, an' be feed fer buzzards," croaked the renegade.
"Then kill me now, or you may slip up on one of your cherished buzzard-feasts," cried Joe, with glinting eye and taunting voice.
"Then go sneaking back to your hole like a hyena, and stay there.
Wetzel is on your trail! He missed you last night; but it was because of the girl.