d the more frightened they are the more
powerful is the inhibition. In any case it was useless to question Sami
so we fed him instead and presently he went to sleep.

I suppose we all forgot him. I know I did. One doesn't elope every day.
And it was never Sami's way to insist upon his presence as ordinary
children do. Li Ho departed to tinker with the "Tillicum" and
afterwards returned to give us a late supper. Desire kept out of my
way. One might almost have thought that she was shy--if so, a most
perplexing development. For why should she feel shy? It wasn't as if we
had not put the whole affair on a perfectly business basis. Perhaps
there is some elemental magic in names, so that, to a woman, the very
word "marriage" has power to provoke certain nervous reactions?

However that may be, even Desire forgot Sami. We left the house just as
the clearing began to grow brighter with light from the still hidden
moon, and we were halfway down to the boat landing before anyone
thought of him. Oddly enough it was I who remembered. "Sami!" I
exclaimed, with a little throb of nameless fear. "We have forgotten
Sami."

Desire, I thought, looked surprised and somewhat vexed at her
oversight. But displayed no trace of the consternation which had
suddenly fallen on me.

"He is all right," she said. "He will sleep till morning unless his
mother comes for him."

"Where you leave um?" asked Li Ho briefly. He had already set down the
bag he was carrying.

"In my own bed."

"Me go get!" said Li Ho.

But I had not waited. I had started to "go get" myself. The sense of
breathless hurry was on me again. I did not pause to argue that the
child was perfectly safe. I forgot that I had ever been lame. Perhaps
that sciatic nerve is only mortal mind anyway. When I came out into the
clearing the cottage was turning silver in the first rays of the full
moon. Very peaceful and secure it looked. And yet I hurried!

I made no noise. To myself I explained this by a desire not to waken
the youngster. No use frightening him. I stole, as quietly as one of
his own ancestors, to the foot of the stairs. The door of Desire's room
was open. I could see a moonlit bar across the dark landing....

I think I went straight up that stair. I hope so. You know that one of
my worst nervous troubles has been a dread that I might fail in some
emergency? I dread a sort of nerve paralysis.... But I got up the
stair. The fear that seemed to push me back wasn't pe