"Wait, dear, do not try to get away from me," he commanded. "I am going to keep you--always. Until I get you out of here--safe from Slade and Cochise--I shall be just your Brother Jack. But I love you, dear, and when we reach a town we shall be married." "O-o-oh! Then I'll belong to you--I'll be your woman?" "You will be my darling little wife. I will be good to you and take care of you--always." "Oh, you dear, nice Jack! And Mena--she'll go along too and help take care of me and love us? Won't she? You know I couldn't ever bear to go away and leave Mena." Along with his amusement over the child's naive suggestion Lennon was conscious of an odd thrill. He remembered the look in Carmena's dark eyes when she saved him from the poison of the Gila monster and at the end of their desperate flight across the Basin. They had risked death together--and _she_ was not a child. But close upon these pleasantly disquieting remembrances of the older girl came the harsh afterthought of his suspicions against her. He bent to kiss Elsie with almost aggressive fervour. From the doorway behind him came a stifled cry that might have been a sob. He held fast to Elsie and glanced over his shoulder. Carmena was standing in the doorway, with her head bent. As Lennon looked, she straightened and came toward him, cold-eyed and determined. "What are you doing, Jack Lennon?" she demanded. "I trusted you. I believed that you were not the kind to take advantage of Blossom. I thought you----" Elsie struggled free from Lennon to fling her arms about her foster-sister. "Oh, Mena, please, please don't be cross with Jack! I love him so, and--and he loves me back!" Lennon met Carmena's hard stare with a gaze no less cool and resolute. "Elsie is to be my wife," he declared. "I shall marry her as soon as possible." "Your wife? Marry her? You mean that?" "Yes." Carmena's fixed gaze wavered and sank. But almost immediately she looked up again, her eyes lustrous with soft radiance. "She is very precious to me, Jack. She deserves to be safe and happy all the rest of her life." Before Lennon could reply, the girl gently freed herself from Elsie and turned to go. "Pardon me--one moment, Miss Farley," appealed Lennon. "There is something I must tell you. I happened to overhear Slade speak to your father. He insists that the lost mine is a gold lode and proposes to take possession when I have led him to it." The girl smiled a bit mockingly. "What else could you expect?" she asked. "If he hadn't believed it a gold lode he wouldn't have made the deal with you. When you show him the copper, it will be up to you to hold him to his bargain. We have no chance unless he splits with Cochise." "Why not persuade your father to slip out of the Hole with us--start immediately? The Apaches have gone off. I'll engage to tie up Slade. We would have an all-night lead."