"Carmena! To have thought so wrong of you--of you who were giving your life! I've been a fool--a blind fool. Forgive me! That child---- My God! I can't give you up--I'll _not_ give you up!" "Then--you do--love me, Jack," sighed the girl. Her arms crept up about his neck. "You do love me--I'm glad now you did not let me die--at once--in there." "Not at all!" vowed Lennon. "Even though your back---- You'll not die." "I can't live--like this, dear. And there's Blossom. You must get her away before Slade's men---- But first find me my little pistol. I gave it to Blossom--to use if there was no other way left. Leave it with me, and hurry off with her while there's time. Hurry!" Lennon's clasp tightened. "No. I'll never leave you--never while----" From the inner rooms of the cliff house came a burst of piercing childish shrieks. Carmena twisted about in Lennon's suddenly loosened embrace. There was a sound like the snap of a dry twig. Carmena screamed and fell over sideways in a deathlike faint. CHAPTER XXIII OUT OF THE PAST As Lennon knelt beside the swooning girl the shrieks rang nearer. Elsie came flying through the rear opening, in wild fright. Her dress was torn and her yellow hair full of dust and wooden bits. Lennon sprang up, certain that the Apache who had been wounded in the kiva was pursuing her. In her flurry she appeared to heed nothing until almost upon the body of Cochise. But one glance at the ghostly whites of the Apache's upturned eyes sent her shrinking backward, stricken to horrified silence. Her wild stare fixed first upon Carmena and then shifted to Lennon. With a shriek, she flung herself upon him, clutching him about the body in frantic terror. "Oh! oh! Papa! Papa! Papa!" she screamed, in a childish treble. "Bad Indian! He's hurting mamma! He's choking mamma!" Lennon pressed her face hard against his breast to stifle her shrieks. "Be still," he shouted. "Stop that noise. You're safe. Be still. Hear me? You're safe." Checked by the sternness of his voice the distracted girl hushed her hysterical cries. When he repeated that she was safe, she at last seemed to grasp the fact. Yet she continued to cling fast to him. "Tell me quick," he demanded. "Is an Indian following you?" "No-no-no!" she babbled. "It's mamma--he's choking her! He----" The tremulous words broke off in a gasp of astonishment. The wild blue eyes stared up at Lennon in bewildered lack of recognition. "Why--why, you're not my papa!" she cried. "Of course not, Blossom. I'm Jack--Brother Jack. Don't you know me?" The girl shrank back. "You're not my brother. Let me go. I haven't any brother. I never saw you before." "Oh, Blossom!" came a cry beside them. Lennon's glance darted aslant. Carmena had risen to a sitting position with her arms outstretched toward Elsie. Her face was white from pain, and she was swaying--but she was sitting upright. Realization of what that meant burst upon Lennon like a flood of golden sunshine.