rt that kid, when I was in town. And I ain't a doubt in the world
but what his folks would be glad enough--"

"Forget that stuff!" Bud's tone was so sharp that Lovin Child turned
clear around to look up curiously into his face. "You know why you never
reported him, doggone yuh! You couldn't give him up no easier than I
could. And I'll tell the world to its face that if anybody gets this
kid now they've pretty near got to fight for him. It ain't right, and it
ain't honest. It's stealing to keep him, and I never stole a brass tack
in my life before. But he's mine as long as I live and can hang on to
him. And that's where I stand. I ain't hidin' behind no kind of alibi.
The old squaw did tell me his folks was dead; but if you'd ask me, I'd
say she was lying when she said it. Chances are she stole him. I'm sorry
for his folks, supposing he's got any. But I ain't sorry enough for 'em
to give him up if I can help it. I hope they've got more, and I hope
they've gentled down by this time and are used to being without him.
Anyway, they can do without him now easier than what I can, because..."
Bud did not finish that sentence, except by picking Lovin Child up in
his arms and squeezing him as hard as he dared. He laid his face down
for a minute on Lovin Child's head, and when he raised it his lashes
were wet.

"Say, old-timer, you need a hair cut. Yuh know it?" he said, with a
huskiness in his voice, and pulled a tangle playfully. Then his eyes
swung round defiantly to Cash. "It's stealing to keep him, but I can't
help it. I'd rather die right here in my tracks than give up this little
ole kid. And you can take that as it lays, because I mean it."

Cash sat quiet for a minute or two, staring down at the floor. "Yeah.
I guess there's two of us in that fix," he observed in his dry way,
lifting his eyebrows while he studied a broken place in the side of his
overshoe. "All the more reason why we should protect the kid, ain't it?
My idea is that we ought to both of us make our wills right here and
now. Each of us to name the other for guardeen, in case of accident,
and each one picking a name for the kid, and giving him our share in the
claims and anything else we may happen to own." He stopped abruptly, his
jaw sagging a little at some unpleasant thought.

"I don't know--come to think of it, I can't just leave the kid all my
property. I--I've got a kid of my own, and if she's alive--I ain't heard
anything of her for fifteen years