“If I was a good talker I’d take a crack at it,” Jerry ventured, “but—­I’d have to be alone.”

Doret’s lips had begun to move; his companions knew that he was voicing a silent appeal, so they lowered their eyes.  For some moments the only sound in the tent was the muttering of the delirious girl.

Linton spoke finally; his voice was low, it was husky with emotion:  “I’ve been getting acquainted with myself to-night—­first time in a long while.  Things look different than they did.  What’s the good of fighting, what’s the use of hurrying and trampling on each other when this is the end?  Gold!  It won’t buy anything worth having.  You’re right, Doret; somebody to love and to care for, somebody that cares for you, that’s all there is in the game.  I had dreams, too, when I was a lot younger, but they didn’t last.  It’s bad, for a man to quit dreaming; he gets mean and selfish and onnery.  Take me—­I ain’t worth skinning.  I had a kid—­little girl--I used to tote her around in my arms.  Funny how it makes you feel to tote a baby that belongs to you; seems like all you’ve got is wrapped up in it; you live two lives.  My daughter didn’t stay long.  I just got started loving her when she went away.  She was—­ awful nice.”

The speaker blinked, for his eyes were smarting.  “I feel, somehow, as if she was here to-night—­as if this girl was her and I was her daddy.  She might have looked something like this young lady if she had lived.  She would have made a big difference in me.”

Tom felt a hand seek his.  It was a bony, big-knuckled hand not at all like ’Poleon Doret’s.  When it gave his fingers a strong, firm, friendly pressure his throat contracted painfully.  He raised his eyes, but they were blurred; he could distinguish nothing except that Jerry Quirk had sidled closer and that their shoulders all but touched.

Now Jerry, for all of his crabbedness, was a sentimentalist; he also was blind, and his voice was equally husky when he spoke: 

“I’d of been her daddy, too, wouldn’t I, Tom?  We’d of shared her, fifty-fifty.  I’ve been mean to you, but I’d of treated her all right.  If you’ll forgive me for the things I’ve said to you maybe the Lord will forgive me for a lot of other things.  Anyhow, I’m goin’ to do a little rough prayin’ for this kid.  I’m goin’ to ask Him to give her a chance.”

Mr. Quirk did pray, and if he made a bad job of it, as he more than suspected, neither of his earthly hearers noticed the fact, for his words were honest, earnest.  When he had finished Tom Linton’s arm was around his shoulders; side by side the old men sat for a long time.  Their heads were bowed; they kept their eyes upon Rouletta Kirby’s face.  Doret stood over them, motionless and intense; they could hear him sigh and they could sense his suffering.  When the girl’s pain caused her to cry out weakly, he knelt and whispered words of comfort to her.

Thus the night wore on.