“You are going down,” she acquiesced. “You are going to Tom. And you are coming up with him––to me!”
“That is too much. I doubted you. Where are those things? He is waiting down there alone.”
“Here is his child, my nephew,” she said. “Hold him while I go for what you need. Here is my pistol. The man who shot you, who twice tried to murder you––he is somewhere up here. He will not harm me. But you––If he comes creeping in on you here, shoot him as you would shoot a coyote.”
“The man who shot me? He is up here?”
“You have seen him every day since that first day I met you,” replied the girl. “His name is Gowan.”
“Gowan?”
“Kid Gowan, murderer! I saw his eyes as he looked at you, lying down there on the brink. Then I knew.”
“But––if he––Where is Genevieve? I cannot go and leave you alone.”
“You can––you must! He is a coward. He dare not follow you down that terrible place. No harm will come to me if you are gone. But if he comes back and finds you––do you not see that if he kills you, he must also kill me? But in the morning, when the 365 others come––Oh, why hasn’t Daddy come? All this long time since you went down into the depths, and he not with us! If only he were here!”
“Genevieve?” again inquired Ashton.