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; 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.