“I would come, Judith, becaze I love you an’ you love me—but Creed, he won’t,” said the boy.
“You tell him Little Buck,” she whispered huskily, terror and shame warring in her face, “tell him that I do love him. Tell him I said for God’s sake to come—if he loves me.”
The child’s eyes slowly filled. He dropped them and stood staring at the ground, saying nothing because of the blur. Finally:
“I’ll tell him that—ef you say I must,” he whispered. And loving, tender Judith, in her desperate preoccupation, never noted what she had done to her little sweetheart.
Chapter XVII
The Old Cherokee Trail
“The supper’s all ready for you boys,” Judith called in to Wade whose whistle sounded from his own room. “Hit’s a settin’, kivered, on the hearth; the coffee-pot’s on the coals. Would you-all mind to wait on yo’selves, an’ would you put the saddle on Selim for me? I’m goin’ over to Lusks’. I’ll eat supper there; I may stay all night; but I’ll be home in the mornin’ soon to git you-all’s breakfast.”
“Why—why, pap ’lowed——”