In his relief at finding her unharmed, the loss of the sheep seemed of no moment and he did not realize what it meant to her until she said with a choke in her voice:
“They knew just where to hit me. I’ve scrimped and saved and sacrificed to buy those sheep—”
Her grief sent a flood of tenderness over him. He went to her swiftly, and taking the six-shooter gently from her hand laid it upon the ground.
“Come here,” he said authoritatively, and drew her to him.
She did not resist, and her head dropped to his shoulder in a movement of disheartened weariness.
“Oh, Hughie—I’m so tired of fighting—so tired—of everything.”
He smoothed her hair as he would have soothed a child, and said decisively—yet with a big tenderness:
“And you shan’t do any more of it!”
He felt his heart breaking with the love he felt for her.
“Kiss me—Honey!” he said softly.