"'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; whereupon, without
speaking, Burrell struck another and held it for him. The trader
drew a noisy puff or two in silence and shot his host a grateful
glance.

"Her plan was for me to take the youngster away that night, and for
her to join us later, because pursuit was certain, and three could
be traced where one might disappear; she would follow when the
opportunity offered. I saw that he had instilled a terror into her,
and that she feared him like death; but, as I thought it over, her
scheme seemed feasible, so I agreed. I was to ride west that hour
with the sleeping babe, and conceal myself at a place we selected,
while she would say that the little one had wandered away and been
lost in the canon, or anything else to throw Bennett off. After a
time she would join us. Well--the little girl never waked when I
took her in my arms, nor when the mother broke down again and talked
to me like a crazy woman. Her collapse showed the terrible strain
she had been living under, and the ragged edge where her reason
stood. She had been brave enough to plan coolly till the hour for