title: Thunder Across the Valley
author: Oliver, Stephen
description: "Your wrong you know," he said. "You under-kick yourself, you did save me. Without you, the Indian would not be here, he follows your life spirit." "You tended me," continued Garrett, and he prodded the tight bindings around his chest, "You showed me compassion where many would have drawn a gun. Your life spirit is strong, strong enough for two." His voice dropped and his dark eyes turned to the cabin door. "Yet there are things that compassion will not heal," and his words tailed off. At once he could feel the wilderness drawing him out; out to the danger that hunted him. "Maybe your right, I don't know," said Maria, and she stood to face him, "but I do know that it's my husband buried out there, taken from me in a minute - where's the compassion in that?" Maria's words passed right through the tall man. Maria turned from him and clenched a fist, still angry at fate's whim, yet she could feel Garrett's presence pressing in on her. "I can't stay," he said. "Why? You're not fit enough to go anywhere; you could start bleeding again  "There's a price on my head," said Garrett, and he hesitated for a moment and looked into her shining eyes, "I killed a woman..."