"Go to bed." "Bed, eh ?" she answered.

"Cousin; shooting is an easier death than hanging,--eh ?" Tom felt a creeping at the roots of his hair, as he answered,--"Yes, I believe so." "Can you shoot straight, old man?
Could you shoot straight and true if he stood there before you?
Ah, you think you could now, but your hand would shake when you saw him." "Go to bed, Mary," said Tom.

"Don't talk like that.

Let the future lie, cousin." She turned and went to her room again.
All this was told me long after by Tom himself.

Tom believed, or said he believed, that she was only sounding him, to see what his intentions were in case of a meeting with George Hawker.