It won't be long, perhaps a day.

I want to go free a little while yet, for I've got some work to do." Burrell rose to his feet and stamped the cramps from his muscles.

He was deeply agitated, and his mind was groping darkly for light to lay hold of this new thing that confronted him.
"Why, yes, yes--of course--don't come until you're ready," he muttered, mechanically, as if unaware of the meaning of his words.

"To be sure, I'm a policeman, am I not?
I had forgotten I was a jailer, and--and all that." He said it sneeringly, and with a measure of contempt for his office; then he turned suddenly to the trader, and his voice was rich and deep-pitched with feeling.
"John Gale," he said, "you're the bravest man I ever knew, and the best." He choked a bit.

"You sacrificed all that life meant when this girl was a baby, and now when she has come into womanhood you give up your blood for her.