d him.

The girl's upturned piquant face was more than tempting. Its flowerlike
delicacy and prettiness and the glow in her wide blue eyes were more
than he could withstand. He bent down and pressed a kiss upon her
half-parted lips.

"You darling!" he said. "You adorable little Blossom!"

She sought shyly to draw away from him. He held her fast. The kiss had
put an end to his last doubt.

"Wait, dear, do not try to get away from me," he commanded. "I am going
to keep you--always. Until I get you out of here--safe from Slade and
Cochise--I shall be just your Brother Jack. But I love you, dear, and
when we reach a town we shall be married."

"O-o-oh! Then I'll belong to you--I'll be your woman?"

"You will be my darling little wife. I will be good to you and take care
of you--always."

"Oh, you dear, nice Jack! And Mena--she'll go along too and help take
care of me and love us? Won't she? You know I couldn't ever bear to go
away and leave Mena."

Along with his amusement over the child's naive suggestion Lennon was
conscious of an odd thrill. He remembered the look in Carmena's dark
eyes when she saved him from the poison of the Gila monster and at the
end of their desperate flight across the Basin. They had risked death
together--and _she_ was not a child.

But close upon these pleasantly disquieting remembrances of the older
girl came the harsh afterthought of his suspicions against her. He bent
to kiss Elsie with almost aggressive fervour.

From the doorway behind him came a stifled cry that might have been a
sob. He held fast to Elsie and glanced over his shoulder. Carmena was
standing in the doorway, with her head bent. As Lennon looked, she
straightened and came toward him, cold-eyed and determined.

"What are you doing, Jack Lennon?" she demanded. "I trusted you. I
believed that you were not the kind to take advantage of Blossom. I
thought you----"

Elsie struggled free from Lennon to fling her arms about her
foster-sister.

"Oh, Mena, please, please don't be cross with Jack! I love him so,
and--and he loves me back!"

Lennon met Carmena's hard stare with a gaze no less cool and resolute.

"Elsie is to be my wife," he declared. "I shall marry her as soon as
possible."

"Your wife? Marry her? You mean that?"

"Yes."

Carmena's fixed gaze wavered and sank. But almost immediately she looked
up again, her eyes lustrous with soft radiance.

"She is very precious to me, Jack. She deserves to be