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 giving up her baby, but when that came she was seized with a thousand dreads, and made me swear by my love for her, which was and is the holiest thing in all my life, that if anything happened I would live for the other Merridy.