alked out long before
Bud or Cash came down into the town more than two months later. It is
not surprising, either, that no one thought to look up-stream for the
baby, or that they failed to consider any possible fate for him save
drowning. That nibbled piece of cracker on the very edge of the river
threw them all off in their reasoning. They took it for granted that
the baby had fallen into the river at the place where they found the
cracker. If he had done so, he would have been swept away instantly. No
one could look at the river and doubt that--therefore no one did doubt
it. That a squaw should find him sitting down where he had fallen, two
hundred yards above the town and in the edge of the thick timber,
never entered their minds at all. 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. Illogically she blamed Bud for
what had happened. He had caused her one more great heartache, and she
hoped never to see him again or to hear his name spoken.

Dully she settled down in a cheap, semi-private boarding house to wait.
In a day or two she pulled herself together and went out to look for
work, because she must have money to live on. Go home to her mother
she would not. Nor did she write to her. There, too, her great hurt
had flung some of the blame. If her mother had not interfered and found
fault all the time with Bud, they would be living together now--happy.
It was her mother who had really brought about their separation. Her
mother would nag at her now for going after Bud, would say that she
deserved to lose her baby as a punishment for letting go her pride and
self-respect. No, she certainly did not want to see her mother, or any
one else she had ever known. Bud least of all.

She found work without much trouble, for she was neat and efficient
looking, of the type that seems to belong in a well-ordered offi