21/24 He left it open while he stared after her astonished until the baby put up a hand over one of Bud's eyes and said "Pik-k ?" with that distracting little quirk at the corners of its lips. "You dog gone little devil, you! Pik-k! then, if that's what you want." The squaw had disappeared into the thick under growth, leaving a track like a hippo in the snow. Bud could have overtaken her, of course, and he could have made her take the baby back again. But he could not face the thought of it. He made no move at all toward pursuit, but instead he turned his face toward Alpine, with some vague intention of turning the baby over to the hotel woman there and getting the authorities to hunt up its parents. |