“He robs the stages of the Wells-Fargo box, but lets the passengers go free, and he has never been known to take anything from a woman.  He says that since all the world is against him, his hand is against the world.

“His den is now at Folsom, they say, but he ranges far afield.  He robs the sluices, and the bullion trains, but he does not take horses or mules except to get away with his booty.  No cell can hold him.  He has escaped from every jail in the northern mines.  He has been known to say, ‘I shall never rot in a prison as long as a revolver can keep me out."’

“Oh, would he — "

“He would, indeed, Dearie, for the sake of his family name and the love he bears you.  His last big raid was upon George Barstow’s Wells-Fargo train from Yreka.  They held them up on Trinity Mountain.  Eighty thousand dollars in bullion, they got, even with twenty men guarding it.”

Mrs. Miller tiptoed to the window and looked out.  Coming back to the girl she whispered, “The guards are tied to trees, and the gang is waiting for Dick and Cy Skinner to get back with new mules, as the Wells-Fargo mules all are branded and would give them away, but if he finds out that you are here he may — "

The Singer-Lady sprang to her feet!  From the trees behind the house floated a snatch of song in a clear baritone.

“When coldness or deceit shall slight the beauty now they prize; When hollow hearts shall wear a mask, ’twill break your own to see.  At such a moment I but ask that you’ll remember me, you’ll — "

By this time the girl was sobbing in Dick’s arms, and the misunderstandings of four years were soon explained.

The Singer-Lady lifted her head at last to the sound of galloping horses.  Dick was looking calmly in their direction.  Terror seized her.

“What is that?”

“You must return to the house.  They must not see you here.”

She clung to him with the wail of a breaking heart.

“It is the sheriff and his deputies.  This morning George and I were on the Folsom stage.  We were stopped by a deputy sheriff and sternly requested to alight.  We entered into conversation with the gentleman of the law — whom I had met several times before” (with a grim smile), “and finally George, with due deference to authority, demanded to be shown the warrant for our arrest.

“Whilst the simple creature was fumbling for it, we opened fire and, springing from the top of the stage, escaped across Harmon Hill.  The vain fellow carried only a derringer, and how was one little bullet to stop our race for liberty.”

“Yet you returned here!  That was madness.”

“I heard of you and the longing to see you once more overcame every other feeling.”

“Do not fear, I knew that they would come.  What was that to pay for the chance of seeing you again.  They can but put me in Auburn jail, and no locks can hold me except the shining ones on this dear head.  No prison can keep me till I am laid in that last one beneath the grass, and there I will wait for you dear love.  I shall not hear the celestian singing till your sweet voice has joined the angel choir, and your two hands — see, I still carry the little mitts — shall open the door for me to Paradise, as they have held all of heaven for me on earth.