Still Pike did not stir, and the Westerner's anxiety correspondingly grew.

He put a hand on Pike's left breast, and failed to locate the heart-beats.
At last, after an alarming interval, Pike gasped, to Badger's intense relief.
"I allow I'd better let it go at this," he reflected.

"I don't want to kill the skunk, though if any man whatever deserved to be murdered, he does.

But I don't want anything of that kind against me.

As Merry has told me, I've got an awful temper when it gets started.