et go--he's mine, I tell you.
Lovin! Lovin Child! Don't you know Marie? Marie's sweet, pitty man, he
is! Come to Marie, boy baby!"

"Tell a worl' no, no, no!" yelled Lovin Child, clinging to Cash.

"Aw--come to Marie, sweetheart! Marie's own lovin' little man baby! You
let him go, or I'll--I'll kill you. You big brute!"

Cash let go, but it was not because she commanded. He let go and stared
hard at Marie, lifting his eyebrows comically as he stepped back, his
hand going unconsciously up to smooth his beard.

"Marie?" he repeated stupidly. "Marie?" He reached out and laid a hand
compellingly on her shoulder. "Ain't your name Marie Markham, young
lady? Don't you know your own dad?"

Marie lifted her face from kissing Lovin Child very much against his
will, and stared round-eyed at Cash. She did not say anything.

"You're my Marie, all right You ain't changed so much I can't recognize
yuh. I should think you'd remember your own father--but I guess maybe
the beard kinda changes my looks. Is this true, that this kid belongs to
you?"

Marie gasped. "Why--father? Why--why, father!" She leaned herself and
Lovin Child into his arms. "Why, I can't believe it! Why--" She closed
her eyes and shivered, going suddenly weak, and relaxed in his arms.
"I-I-I can't--"

Cash slid Lovin Child to the ground, where that young gentleman picked
himself up indignantly and ran as far as his picket rope would let him,
whereupon he turned and screamed "Sunny-gun! sunny-gun!" at the two like
an enraged bluejay. Cash did not pay any attention to him. He was busy
seeking out a soft, shady spot that was free of rocks, where he might
lay Marie down. He leaned over her and fanned her violently with his
hat, his lips and his eyebrows working with the complexity of his
emotions. Then suddenly he turned and ducked into the tunnel, after Bud.

Bud heard him coming and turned from his work. Cash was not trundling
the empty barrow, which in itself was proof enough that something had
happened, even if Cash had not been running. Bud dropped his pick and
started on a run to meet him.

"What's wrong? Is the kid--?"

"Kid's all right" Cash stopped abruptly, blocking Bud's way. "It's
something else. Bud, his mother's come after him. She's out there
now--laid out in a faint."

"Lemme go." Bud's voice had a grimness in it that spelled trouble for
the lady laid out in a faint "She can be his mother a thousand times--"

"Yeah. Hold on a minute, Bud. Yo