That she should pick him up with the intention at first of stopping his crying, and should yield to the temptingness of him just as Bud bad yielded, would have seemed to Alpine still more unlikely; because no Indian had ever kidnapped a white child in that neighborhood.

So much for the habit of thinking along grooves established by precedent Marie went to Sacramento merely because that was the closest town of any size, where she could wait for the news she dreaded to receive yet must receive before she could even begin to face her tragedy.

She did not want to find Bud now.

She shrank from any thought of him.

Only for him, she would still have her Lovin Child.