ain't clearly known, although the
police has a clue. It seems my wolf cub leads some innocent yearling
astray down by the harbor, said victim being the crimp from a sailors'
boarding-house. To prove he's fierce, Billy has a skinful of mixed
drinks, and this stranger is kind enough to take him to see a beautiful
English bark which is turning loose for Cape Horn. Seems the ship takes
a notion to Billy, and the captain politely axes him to work. He's been
shanghaied."

"This will kill his mother."

"Not if she thinks her son's another Joseph getting rich."

"Oh, it's too awful!"

"Wall, maybe I'm a fool, Kate, but seems to me that this young person
had to be weaned from running after a woman, before he'd any chance to
be a man."

CHAPTER XIII

NATIVITY

_Kate's Narrative_

Jesse allowed that the upper forest does look "sort of wolfy." He would
post relays of ponies along the outward trail, so that he and McGee
could ride the eighty miles back in a single march. If the doctor
survived that, he would be here in forty-eight hours, perhaps in time.

I made Jesse take his revolver, yes, loaded it myself, and he promised a
signal shot from the rim-rock to give me the earliest news of his
return. He put out the light, he kissed me good-by, and was gone.

From the inner edge of the bed I could see through the window, and
watched Orion rising behind the cliffs. The night turned pale, then for
a long time the great gaunt precipice was revealed in tender primrose
light and amber shade. I heard our riders saddle, mount, and canter away
for the day's work. The two Chinamen went off also on some domestic
errand. The sunrise caught the pines upon the rim-rock into points of
flame. I heard a distant shot, and fell asleep.

The widow had stumped about nearly all night, weary to the tip of her
wooden leg, poor soul, so when I woke again and crept to the lean-to
door, it was a relief to find that she had gone to sleep. She had left
me a saucepan full of bread and milk which I warmed, and it warmed me
nicely.

Mrs. O'Flynn asleep is like peace after war. Dressing in stealth, I
prayed for peace in our time, then with a sweet enjoyment of fresh
guilt, stole out into the sunshine.

Instead of Jesse's whistling, Mick's barking, the altercations in the
new ram-pasture where our cow-boys live, the snuffles of old Jones, our
yard was filled with the exact opposite. Of course each sound has its
opposite, its shadow, making a