IV
SOMEHOW, with the morning our suspicions, if we had any, vanished. Mr. Muldoon had been up at dawn, and when we wakened he had already brought water from a near-by spring and was boiling some in the teakettle.
Seen by daylight, he was very good-looking. He had blue eyes with black lashes and dark-brown hair, and a habit of getting up when any of us did that kept him on his feet most of the time. His limp was rather better—or his ankle.
"That's what a little mothering has done for me," he said gayly, over his coffee and mackerel. "It's a long time since I've had any one to do anything like that for me."
"But surely your wife
" began Tish. He started and changed color. We all saw it."My wife!"
"You've got a wife and two children, haven't you?"
He looked at us all and drew a long breath.
"Ladies," he said, "I see some of my painful history is known to you. May I ask—is it
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