f I must die, it was sweet to hear
those words. She had not gotten my letter. She had heard all the
misrepresentation, and she knew all the circumstances entangling
everything. What had become of my letter made no difference; it was
lost. But she loved me still. And I who should have read this letter out
on "Rockport" in the August sunset, I was listening to it now out on
this gray rock in a lonely land as I lay bound for the death awaiting
me. But the reading brought joy. Jean watching my face saw his mistake
and he cursed me in his anger.

"You care so much for another man's wife? So! I can drive away your
happiness as easily as I brought it to you," he argued. "I go back to
Springvale. Nobody knows when I go. Bud's out of the way; O'mie won't be
there. Suddenly, silently, I steal upon Star-face when she least thinks
of me. I would have been good to her five years ago. I can get her away
long and long before anybody will know it. Tell Mapleson will help me
sure. Now I sell her, on time, to one buck. When I get ready I redeem
her, and sell her to another. You know that woman you and Bud found in
Satanta's tepee on the Washita? I killed her myself. The soldiers went
by five minutes afterwards,--she was that near getting away. That's
what Star-face will come to by and by. Satanta is my mother's brother. I
can surpass him. I know your English ways also. When you die a little
later, remember what Star-face is coming to. When I get ready I will
torture her to death. You couldn't escape me. No more can she. Remember
it!"

The sun was low in the west now, and the pain of my bonds was hard to
bear, but this slow torture of mind made them welcome. They helped me
not to think. After a long silence Jean turned his face full toward me.
I had not spoken a word since his first quick binding of my limbs.

"When the last pink is in the sky your time will come," he laughed. "And
nobody will know. I'll leave you where the hunter accidentally shot you.
Watch that sunset and think of home."

He shoved me rudely about that I might see the western sky and the level
rays of the sun, as it sank lower and lower. I had faced death before. I
must do it sometime, once for all. But life was very dear to me. Home
and Marjie's love. Oh, the burden of the days had been more grievous
than I had dreamed, now that I understood. And all the time the sun was
sinking. Keeping well in the shadow that no eye from below might see
him, Jean walked toward t