him catch her arm and hold her there. Tears were in his eyes as he
looked at her, and his jaws were set firmly.

"You are afraid of me--of me?" he asked. "Don't be. Life will be hard
enough now without leaving me that to remember. I'm not asking a word in
return from you; I have no right. You will be happy somewhere else--and
with some one else--and that is right."

He still held her wrist, and they stood in silence. She could utter no
word; but her mouth trembled and she tried to smother a sob that arose in
her throat.

But he heard it.

"Don't!" he said, almost in a whisper--"for God's sake, don't cry. I can't
stand that--not your tears. Here! be brave! Look up at me, won't you? See!
I don't ask you for a word or a kiss or a thought when you leave me--only
let me see your eyes! Look at me!"

What he read in her trembling lips and her shrinking, shamed eyes made him
draw his breath hard through his shut teeth.

"My brave little girl!" he said softly. "You will think harshly of me for
this some day--if you ever know--know all. But what you did this morning
made a coward of me--that and my longing for you. Try to forgive me. Or,
no--you had better not. And when you are his wife--Oh, it's no use--I
can't think or speak of that--yet. Good-by, little girl--good-by!"

CHAPTER XXIV.

LEAVING CAMP.

Afterward, 'Tana never could remember clearly the incidents of the few
days that followed. Only once more she entered the cabin of death, and
that was when Mr. Haydon and Mr. Seldon returned with all haste to the
camp, after meeting with Captain Leek and the Indian boatman.

Then, as some of the men offered to go with them to view the remains of
the outlaw, she came forward.

"No. I will take them," she said.

When Mr. Haydon demurred, feeling that a young girl should be kept as much
as possible from such scenes, she had laid her hand on Seldon's arm.

"Come!" she said, and they went with her.

But when inside the door, she did not approach the blanket-covered form
stretched on the couch; only pointed toward it, and stood herself like a
guard at the entrance.

When Seldon lifted the Indian blanket from the face, he uttered a startled
exclamation, and looked strangely at her. She never turned around.

"What is it?" asked Mr. Haydon.

No one replied, and as he looked with anxiety toward the form there, his
face grew ashen in its horror.

"Lord in heaven!" he gasped; "first her on that bed and now _him_!