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"Are you never to have any mercy on me, Sam?"

"Come back to me as my lawful wife, and you'll see. I'll be easy enough to get along with if you'll treat me right."

The wife was struck dtmib with astonishment.

"Come back to me, darling!" The mocking tone gave way to one of cooing tenderness. Jean saw his dusky figure through the shadows. "You see you 're in my power, Sally. Better make a virtue of necessity. You can coax the Squire to let me join his train. I will even be a teamster, if necessary, for your sake and the children's."

"What?" cried the woman, in sincere alarm. "Could I be your wife after I've seen you kill one of our children before my very eyes? No, no! Go your way, and let me go mine in peace. If you will leave me and the three surviving babies alone, I'll never tell anybody about the murder. I swear it! "

Again that brutal laugh.

"Do your worst, Sally O'Dowd! You can't prove that I killed the brat. You haven't any witness."

"I have the silent witness of my own conscience; and sp have you, Sam O'Dowd. Do you think that I am such an idiot as to come out here to meet you alone?"

"She knows he's a coward," thought Jean, "and she's bluffing."

"Now see here, Sally! You love me; you know you do; you 've told me so a thousand times."

"I did love you once, Sam; but that was so long ago that it seems like a far-oflf dream. I despise, I loathe, I abhor you now!"

"Then this'll settle it. I'll go to the Squire and tell him we 've buried the hatchet, and I 'm going with you to Oregon. I don't care a rap whether you hate me or not. But if you give me any trouble, I'll swear that you did that killing."