It was Isobel's face that he first saw when he came from out of that black pit. He knew that it was her voice calling to him before he had opened his eyes. He felt the touch of her hands, and when he looked up her loose, soft hair swept his breast. His head was bolstered up, and so he could look straight into her face. It frightened him. He knew now what she had been saying to him as he lay there upon the floor. "You must get up! You must go!" he heard her mooning. "You must take my baby away. And you-- you-- must go!" He pulled himself half erect, then rose to his feet, swaying a little. He came to her then, with the look in his face she had first seen out on the Barren when he had told her that he was going with her through the forest. "No, I am not going away," he said, firmly, and yet with that same old gentleness in his voice. "If I go you will die. So I am going to stay." She stared at him, speechless. "You-- you can't," she gasped, at last. "Don't you see-- don't you understand? I'm a woman-- and you can't. You must take her-- my baby-- and go for help." "There is no help," said MacVeigh, quietly. "Within a few hours you will be helpless. I am going to stay and-- and-- I swear to God I will care for you-- as he-- would have done. He made me promise that-- to care for you-- to stick by you--" She looked straight into his eyes. He saw the twitching of her throat, the quiver of her lips. In another moment she would have fallen if he had not put a supporting arm about her. "If-- anything-- happens," she gasped, brokenly, "you will take care-- of her-- my baby--" "Yes-- always." "And if I-- get well--" Her head swayed dizzily and dropped to his breast. "If I get-- well--" "Yes," he urged. "Yes--" "If I--" He saw her struggle and fail. "Yes, I know-- I understand," he cried, quickly, as she grew heavier in his arms. "If you get well I will go. I swear to do that. I will go away. No one will ever know-- no one-- in the whole world. And I will be good to you-- and care for you--" He stopped, brushed back her hair, and looked into her face. Then he carried her into the inner room; and when he came out little Isobel was crying. "You poor little kid," he cried, and caught her up in his arms. "You poor little--" The child smiled at him through her tears, and Billy suddenly sat down on the edge of the table. "You've been a little brick from the beginning, and you're going to keep it up, little one," he said, taking her pretty face between his two big hands. "You've got to be good, for we're going to have a-- a--" He turned away, and finished under his breath. "We're going to have a devil of a time!" XVI THE LAW-- MURDERER OF MEN