,
so that it was shaded from the light.

"You've got me now, an' I know what's coming as well as you do." His
voice was low and quiet, with the faintest trace of a broken note in
it, deep down in his throat. "We're alone, old man, and a long way from
anyone. I ain't blaming you for catching me. I haven't got anything
against you. So let's drop this other thing--what I'm going down
to--and talk something pleasant. I know I'm going to hang. That's the
law. It'll be pleasant enough when it comes, don't you think? Let's
talk about--about--home. Got any kids?"

Brokaw shook his head, and took his pipe from his mouth.

"Never married," he said shortly.

"Never married," mused Billy, regarding him with a curious softening of
his blue eyes. "You don't know what you've missed, Brokaw. Of course,
it's none of my business, but you've got a home--somewhere--" Brokaw
shook his head again.

"Been in the service ten years," he said. "I've got a mother living
with my brother somewhere down in York State. I've sort of lost track
of them. Haven't seen 'em in five years."

Billy was looking at him steadily. Slowly he rose to his feet, lifted
his manacled hands, and turned down the light.

"Hurts my eyes," he said, and he laughed frankly as he caught the
suspicious glint in Brokaw's eyes. He seated himself again, and leaned
over toward the other. "I haven't talked to a white man for three
months," he added, a little hesitatingly. "I've been hiding--close. I
had a dog for a time, and he died, an' I didn't dare go hunting for
another. I knew you fellows were pretty close after me. But I wanted to
get enough fur to take me to South America. Had it all planned, an' SHE
was going to join me there--with the kid. Understand? If you'd kept
away another month--"

There was a husky break in his voice, and he coughed to clear it.

"You don't mind if I talk, do you--about her, an' the kid? I've got to
do it, or bust, or go mad. I've got to because--to-day--she was
twenty-four--at ten o'clock in the morning--an' it's our wedding day--"

The half gloom hid from Brokaw what was in the other's face. And then
Billy laughed almost joyously. "Say, but she's been a true little
pardner," he whispered proudly, as there came a lull in the storm. "She
was just born for me, an' everything seemed to happen on her birthday,
an' that's why I can't be downhearted even NOW. It's her birthday? you
see, an' this morning, before you came, I was just that happy