hanged
his name, so the search was mighty slow and blind, but I knew the day
would come. And it would have come only for--this.

"There isn't much more to tell. I did what most men would have done, I
reckon, because I was just average in every way. I took Alluna, and
together we drifted North, along the frontier, until we landed here.
Every year the little girl got more beautiful and more like her mother,
and every year we two loved her more. We changed her name, of course,
for I've always had the dread of the law back of me, and then the other
two kiddies came along; but we were living pretty easy, the woman
contented and me waiting for Bennett, till you stepped in and Necia
fell in love. That's another thing I never counted on. It seems like
I've always overlooked the plainest kind of facts. I've held off
telling you the last few weeks, hoping you two wouldn't make it
necessary, for I reckon I'm sort of a coward; but she informed me
to-night that she couldn't marry you, being what she thinks she is, and
knowing the blood she has in her I knew she wouldn't. I figured it
wouldn't be right to either of you to let you go it blind, and so I
came in to tell you this whole thing and to give myself up."

Gale stopped, then poured himself another drink.

"To give yourself up?" echoed Burrell, vaguely. "How do you mean?" He
had sat like one in a trance during the long recital, only his eyes
alive.

"I'm under indictment for murder," said the trader. "I have been for
fifteen years, and there's no chance in the world for me to prove my
innocence."

"Have you told Necia?" the young man inquired.

"No, you'll have to do that--I never could--she might--disbelieve.
What's more, you mustn't tell her yet. Wait till I give the word. It
won't be long, perhaps a day. I want to go free a little while yet, for
I've got some work to do."

Burrell rose to his feet and stamped the cramps from his muscles. He
was deeply agitated, and his mind was groping darkly for light to lay
hold of this new thing that confronted him.

"Why, yes, yes--of course--don't come until you're ready," he muttered,
mechanically, as if unaware of the meaning of his words. "To be sure,
I'm a policeman, am I not? I had forgotten I was a jailer, and--and all
that." He said it sneeringly, and with a measure of contempt for his
office; then he turned suddenly to the trader, and his voice was rich
and deep-pitched with feeling.

"John Gale," he said, "you're the