"She is in Heaven," said Ashton--"in Heaven, where some day you will go. But I--I--" She could see no more than the vague blotch of his white face in the darkness, but his voice told her the anguish of his look. "He was right--your brother. He told me that we always take with us the heaven or the hell that we each have made for ourselves.... I have lost you.... You know now why I am going down to do the little that I can do." "You are going down?" she asked wonderingly. "You still say that you are going down? Yet I have told you about--Mary!" "If you were she, I still would be utterly unfit to look you in the face. I shall go to the camp for the lantern. There were other gloves and some of my clothing." "They are all here." "Show me where they are, and get ready the lantern and bandages and a sack of food." "You are going down," she acquiesced. "You are going to Tom. And you are coming up with him--to me!" "That is too much. I doubted you. Where are those things? He is waiting down there alone." "Here is his child, my nephew," she said. "Hold him while I go for what you need. Here is my pistol. The man who shot you, who twice tried to murder you--he is somewhere up here. He will not harm me. But you--If he comes creeping in on you here, shoot him as you would shoot a coyote." "The man who shot me? He is up here?" "You have seen him every day since that first day I met you," replied the girl. "His name is Gowan." "_Gowan?_" "Kid Gowan, murderer! I saw his eyes as he looked at you, lying down there on the brink. Then I knew." "But--if he--Where is Genevieve? I cannot go and leave you alone." "You can--you must! He is a coward. He dare not follow you down that terrible place. No harm will come to me if you are gone. But if he comes back and finds you--do you not see that if he kills you, he must also kill me? But in the morning, when the others come--Oh, why hasn't Daddy come? All this long time since you went down into the depths, and he not with us! If only he were here!" "Genevieve?" again inquired Ashton. "She has gone. She started down the mountain for help when Kid went away. I'm so afraid for you, dear! He may be creeping back now--he may be waiting already, close by here, in the darkness. But if he has not heard our voices, he will go first to where you came up, and then to the tent. Keep quiet until I return. Wait; here is cream and egg. Drink it all." When he had drained the bowl that she held to his lips, she crept away. Ashton sat still, the warm, soft little body of the sleeping baby in his arms, the pistol in his bandaged right hand. In her excitement Isobel had forgotten his bound fingers. If Gowan had come on him then, he would have put the baby back in under the rock, and faced the puncher's revolver with a smile. What had he now to live for? He had lost her. She had not yet grasped the baseness of what he had thought and done. As soon as she realized ... And he could never forgive himself. CHAPTER XXXII