"I did almost forget him--and after fifteen years!" "Let us kill him to-night; then we will go to the soldier together, side by side--I am your woman.

Necia will look after the little ones." Gale stared at her, and as he gazed the red pigment underneath her skin, the straight-hanging, mane-like hair, the gaudy shawl she never went without, the shapeless, skin-shod feet, the slovenly, ill-fitting garb of a mis-cast woman vanished, and he saw her as she was on a day long past, a slim, shy, silent creature, with great, watchful, trusting eyes and a soul unspoiled.

No woman had ever been so loyal, so uncomplaining.

He had robbed her of her people and her gods.

He had shifted hither and yon at the call of his uncertain fortune, or at a sign of that lurking fear that always dogged him, and she had never left his side, never questioned, never doubted, but always served him like a slave, without asking for a part in that other love, without sharing in the caresses he had consecrated to a woman she had never seen.
"By Heaven! You're game, Alluna, but there's a limit even to what I can take from you," he said, at last.