"Yes," said Teresa quietly. "Low exchanged it and got a ring for me from
that trader Isaacs. It was worth more, you bet. And the ring didn't fit
either--"
"Yes," interrupted Dunn, with an almost childish eagerness.
"And I made him take it back, and get the value in money. I hear that
Isaacs sold it again and made another profit; but that's like those
traders." The disingenuous candor of Teresa's manner was in exquisite
contrast to Dunn. He rose and grasped her hand so heartily she was
forced to turn her eyes away.
"Good-by!" he said.
"You look tired," she murmured, with a sudden gentleness that surprised
him; "let me go with you a part of the way."
"It isn't safe for you just now," he said, thinking of the possible
consequences of the alarm Brace had raised.
"Not the way YOU came," she replied; "but one known only to myself."
He hesitated only a moment. "All right, then," he said finally, "let
us go at once. It's suffocating here, and I seem to feel this dead bark
crinkle under my feet."
She cast a rapid glance around her, and then seemed to sound with her
eyes the far-off depths of the aisles, beginning to grow pale with the
advancing day, but still holding a strange quiver of heat in the air.
When she had finished her half-abstracted scrutiny of the distance, she
cast one backward glance at her own cabin and stopped.
"Will you wait a moment for me?" she asked gently.
"Yes--but--no tricks, Teresa! It isn't worth the time."
She looked him squarely in the eyes without a word.
"Enough," he said; "go!"
She was absent for some moments. He was beginning to become uneasy, when
she made her appearance again, clad in her old faded black dress. Her
face was very pale, and her eyes were swollen, but she placed his hand
on her shoulder, and bidding him not to fear to lean upon her, for she
was quite strong, led the way.
"You look more like yourself now, and yet--blast it all!--you don't
either," said Dunn, looking down upon her. "You've changed in some way.
What is it? Is it on account of that Injin? Couldn't you have found a
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