“They’d get it up there. Bad trails, canyons to head, steep climbs, wind-storms, thunder and lightning, rain, mountain-lions and wildcats.”
“Very well, I am decided. Stewart, of course you will take charge? I don’t believe I—Stewart, isn’t there something more you could tell me—why you think, why you know my own personal liberty is in peril?”
“Yes. But do not ask me what it is. If I hadn’t been a rebel soldier I would never have known.”
“If you had not been a rebel soldier, where would Madeline Hammond be now?” she asked, earnestly.
He made no reply.
“Stewart,” she continued, with warm impulse, “you once mentioned a debt you owed me—” And seeing his dark face pale, she wavered, then went on. “It is paid.”
“No, no,” he answered, huskily.
“Yes. I will not have it otherwise.”
“No. That never can be paid.”
Madeline held out her hand.