wo big
tears start from the suddenly closed eyelids, and with a little
inarticulate cry he took her into his arms.

"If you had not come, Bud Lee," she whispered faintly, "I should have
died, I think."

Very tenderly he gathered her up so that her little boots were swung
clear of the flinty ground and she lay quiet in his arms. He stood a
moment holding her thus, looking with eyes alternately hard and tender
into her face. He wanted to hold her thus always, to watch the glad
color come back into her cheeks, to carry her, like a baby, back across
the weary miles and home. And, oddly, perhaps, the thought came back
to him and hurt him as it had never hurt him before, that he had once
been brutal with her, that he had crushed her in his arms and forced
upon her lips his kiss. He had been brutal with Judith, when now he
could kill a man for laying a little finger on her.

"I have been a brute with you, a brute," he muttered to himself. But
Judith heard him, her eyes fluttered open and into them came again her
glorious smile.

"Because you kissed me that night, Bud Lee?" she asked him.

"Don't!" he cried sharply. "Don't even remember it, Judith."

"Do you know so little of a girl, Bud Lee," she went on slowly, "to
think that a man can so easily--find her lips with his unless--unless
she wants to be kissed?"

He almost doubted his ears; he could hardly believe that he had seen
what he had seen in Judith's eyes. They were closed now, she lay quiet
in his arms, it seemed that she had fainted, or, was asleep, so very
white and still was she. He had forgotten that he must carry her to
where he could lay her down and bring water to her, give her something
to eat. He just stood motionless, holding her to him, staring hungrily
down at her.

"Are you going to play--I'm your baby--all day, Bud Lee?" she asked
softly.

He carried her swiftly away from the ring of boulders and to a little
grassy, level spot where he put her down with lingering tenderness.
Judith had not been angry with him all these months! Judith had let
him kiss her because she wanted to be kissed--by him!

He raked some coals out of the ashes, hastily set some slices of bacon
to fry, cursed himself for not having brought coffee and milk and sugar
and a steak and a flask of whiskey and enough other articles to load a
mule. He ran down into the canon and brought water in his hat,
swearing at himself all the way up that he had not brought a cup.