ence. And--well, well! you know
you've been quarreling ever since you met."

"But that is all over now," he promised; "and haven't you a good wish for
us?"

"Indeed I have, then--a many of them, but you have surprised me. I used to
think that's how it would end; and then--well, then, a different notion
got in my head. Now that it's settled, I do hope you will be happy. Bless
the child! I'll go and tell her so this minute."

"No," he said, quickly, "let her and Dan have their talk out--if she will
talk to him. That fever left her queer in some things, and one of them is
her avoidance of Dan. She hasn't been free and friendly with him as she
used to be, and it is too bad; for he is such a good fellow, and would do
anything for her."

"Yes, he would," assented Mrs. Huzzard.

"And she will be her own spirited self in a few weeks--when she gets away
from here--and gets stronger. She'll appreciate Dan more after a while,
for there are few like him. And so--as she is to go away so soon, I hope
something will put them on their former confidential footing. Maybe this
murder will be the something."

"You are a good friend, Mr. Max," said the woman, slowly, "and you deserve
to be a lucky lover. I'm sure I hope so."

Within the cabin, those two of whom they spoke stood together beside the
dead outlaw, and their words were low--so low that the paralyzed man in
the next room listened in vain.

"And you believed that of me--of me?" he asked, and she answered,
falteringly:

"How did I know? You said--you threatened--you would kill him--any man you
found in here. So, when he was here dead, I--did not know."

"And you thought I had stuck that knife in him and left?"

She nodded her head.

"And you thought," he continued, in a voice slightly tremulous, "that you
were giving me a chance to escape just so long as you let them
suspect--you?"

She did not answer, but turned toward the door. He held his arm out and
barred her way.

"Only a moment!" he said, pleadingly. "It never can be that--that I would
be anything to you, little girl--never, never! But--just once--let me tell
you a truth that shall never hurt you, I swear! I love you! No other word
but that will tell your dearness to me. I--I never would have said it,
but--but what you risked for me has broken me down. It has told me more
than your words would tell me, and I--Oh, God! my God!"

She shrank from the passion in his words and tone, but the movement only
made