The handkerchief upon her neck was loose, and underneath the pink border of her bonnet the ringlets had begun to stray.

Her resolute face, so young and beautiful, startled them almost as an apparition might have done.
"I'm dead beat," said the hotel-keeper under his breath, "if I ever seed anything like that!" But with the ready suspicion of a prudent householder he questioned her.

Where had the man come by the wound?
For they saw the blood-stained bandages she clasped.
Yesterday, she explained, he had received a slight bullet-wound by accident, and to-day, in their long travel, the loss of blood had disabled him.
"Does he belong to you, young lady ?" Susannah busied herself with the bandages for a moment, but terror had carried her far.

She replied with gentle decision, "He is my husband.".