all I can. He'll make a bad
woman of me as sure as he will of the little one, if I stay on here, so
I have decided to go and take her with me.'"

"'Where?' said I."

"'Wherever you say,' she answered; and yet I did not understand, not
till I saw the look in her eyes. Then, as it dawned on me, she broke
down, for it was a terrible thing for a good woman to offer."

'"It's all for the little girl!' she cried. 'More than her life depends
upon it. We must get her away from him.'"

"She saw it was her only course, and went where her heart was calling."

The Lieutenant met the look of appeal in the trader's eyes, and nodded
to imply his complete understanding and approval.

"We love some women for their goodness, others we love for their
frailness, but there never was one who combined the two like her, and,
now that I knew she loved me, I began to believe again there was a God
somewhere. I'd never seen the youngster, so she led me in where it was
sleeping, and I remember my boots made such a devil of a thumping on
the floor that she laid her slim white finger on her lips and smiled at
me. All the fingers in the world began to choke at my throat, and all
the blood in me commenced to pound at my heart, when I looked on that
little sleeping kiddie. The tears began to roll out of my eyes, and,
because they had been dry for four years, they scalded like melted
metal. That was the only time I ever wept--the sight of her baby did it.

"'I love her already,' I whispered, 'and I'll spend my life making her
happy and making a lady of her,' which clinched what wavering doubt the
mother had, and she began to plan quickly, the fear coming on her of a
sudden that our scheme might fail. I was for riding away with both of
them that night, back through the streets of Mesa and up into the
hills, where I'd have held them single-handed against man or God or
devil, but she wouldn't hear of it.

"'We must go away,' she said, 'a long way from here, where the world
won't find us and the little one can grow to womanhood without knowing.
She must never learn who her father was or what her mother did. We will
start all over, you and I and the baby, and forget. Do you love me well
enough to do it?'

"I uttered a cry and took her in my arms, the arms that had ached for
her all those years. Then I kissed her for the first time."

The old man tried to light his pipe, which had gone out, but his
fingers shook so that he dropped the match; whereu