“Frank,” said Nucky, when breakfast was over, “do you care if I talk to you some more about—­you know—­you know what you said last night?  I never talked about it to any one but Luigi, and it makes me feel better.”

“Sure, go ahead!” said Frank.

“My mother—­” began Nucky.

“You mean Luigi’s wife,” corrected the guide.

“Luigi’s wife was crazy about me.  She loved me just as much as any mother could.  Luigi’s always been jealous about it.  That’s why he treated me so rotten.”

“Bad women can be just as fond of kids as good women,” was Frank’s comment.  “What did she look like?  Can you remember?”

“I don’t know whether I remember it or if it’s just what folks told me.  She had dark blue eyes and dark auburn hair.  Luigi said she was Italian.”

“If she was, she was North Italian,” mused the guide.  “Did any one ever give you any hints about your father?”

A slow, painful red crept over Nucky’s pale face.  “I never asked but once.  Maybe you can guess what Luigi said.”

“If Luigi were in this part of the country,” growled Allen, “I’d lead a lynching party to call on him.”  He paused, eying Nucky’s boyish face closely, then he asked, “Did you love your mother?”

“I suppose I did.  But Luigi kept at me so that now I hate her and all other women.  Mrs. Seaton seemed kind of nice, but I suppose she is like the rest of ’em.”

“Don’t you think it!  And did you know that Seaton thinks you were kidnapped?”

Nucky drew a quick breath and the guide went on, “I think so too.  You never belonged to an Italian.  I can’t tell you just why I feel so certain.  But I’d take my oath you are of New England stock.  John Seaton is a first-class lawyer.  As I said to you last night, if you show some decent spirit, he’d try to clear the matter up for you.”

Nucky’s blue eyes were as eager and as wistful as a little child’s.  His thin, mobile lips quivered.  “I never thought of such a thing, Frank!”

“Well, you’d better think of it!  Now then, you clean up these dishes for me while I attend to the stock.  I want to be off in a half hour.”

During the remainder of that very strenuous day, Nucky did not refer again to the matter so near his heart.  He was quiet, but no longer sullen, and he was boyishly interested in the wonders of the Canyon.  The sun was setting when they at last reached the rim.  For an hour Nucky had not spoken.  When Allen had turned in the saddle to look at the boy, Nucky had nodded and smiled, then returned to his absorbed watching of the lights and shadows in the Canyon.

They dismounted at the corral.  “Now, old man,” said Frank, “I want you to go in and tuck away a big supper, take a hot bath and go to bed.  To-morrow we’ll ride along the rim just long enough to fight off the worst of the saddle stiffness.”

“All right!” Nucky nodded.  “I’m half dead, that’s a fact.  But I’ve got to tell the clerk and the bell boy a thing or two before I do anything.”