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214 an' it 'll be a week before they find it—him, there, in the bushes—so they 'll never get us in God's world. We'd planned it already—but that was when I thought you did n't care.—An' the cities!" she cried. "That's the place to live. I 'll show you, for I know 'em all. That's where Jim found me first—Jim Barclay. The old fool!—old redheaded beast! Pah!"

She paused for breath, and, while the crickets were trilling in the damp grass, stroked his arm as if in consolation.

"Sakes, how strong you are!" she purred. "But you 're not like them. I'm through with their kind now, honest, for good. They 're big babies along of you. Don't you see? Don't you see?—Oh, you quiet devil! The time we 'll have!—I never knew a man like you before."

Still Marden could not pull himself away from what at once quieted and angered him.

"A man like me?" he stupidly faltered. "Why—what"—

"That's you all over!" cried the woman proudly. "Why, how many of 'em do you