Venters spoke up, an' his voice sort of chilled an' cut, en' he told Tull he had a few things to say." Here Lassiter paused while he turned his sombrero round and round, in his familiar habit, and his eyes had the look of a man seeing over again some thrilling spectacle, and under his red bronze there was strange animation.
"Like a shot, then, Venters told Tull that the friendship between you an' him was all over, an' he was leaving your place.

He said you'd both of you broken off in the hope of propitiatin' your people, but you hadn't changed your mind otherwise, an' never would.
"Next he spoke up for you.

I ain't goin' to tell you what he said.
Only--no other woman who ever lived ever had such tribute! You had a champion, Jane, an' never fear that those thick-skulled men don't know you now.

It couldn't be otherwise.

He spoke the ringin', lightnin' truth....