, 1908-07-16

to be able to discover some path lead
ing up"
He rose cautiously to his feet. press
ing her more closely against the face
of the cliff. thus holding her in COM
parative safety while preventing her
from %glancing back into the dizzy
chasm.- The most difficult portion Of
their journey was apparently just be-
fore them. More than nee they tot
tered on the very brink, held to safety
merely by desperate clutchings at o C
or shrub. yet never once did the man
loosen his guarding grasp Of his com
panion. Pressed tightly against the
smooth rock. feeling for every crevice.
every slightest irregularity Of surface.
making use of creeping tendril or
dead branch. daring death along every
inch Of the way. these two creepers
at last attained the opening to a little
gulley. and sank down, faint and trem-
bling. The girl glanced furtively at
him. the long lashes s%hadowing the
expression of her lowered eyes. In
spite OF deep prejudice she felt i'm
PEELED TO like this man: he accom-
plished things. and he didn't talk.
1t was nothing more serious than .
hard and toilsome climb after that, q
continuous struggle testing every mus
Gle. straining every sinew. causing
both to sink down again and again.
painting and exhausted, no longer stfm-
ulated by imminent peril. The narrow
cleft they followed led somewhere
away from the exposed front of the
precipice, yet arose steep and jagged
before them. 1t was bridged finally by
. cedar trunk which Hampton
wrenched from out It's rocky foothold.
AND the two crept cautiously forward.
to emerge where the sunlight rested
golden at the summit. They sank face
downward in the short grass. barely
conscious that they had finally won
their desperate passage.
Slowly Hampton succeeded in up
lifting his tired body and his reeling
head, until he could sit partially up
right and gaze u~nsteadily about. The
girl yet remained notionless al his
feet. her thick hair, a mass of red gold
in the sunshine, completely concealing
her face. her slender figure q~uivering
to sobs of utter exhaustion. Before
then stretched the barren plain,
brown, desola!s~.-drear, offering in all
its wide expanse nc I;opefK- Sr5misS
Of rescue. With hand partially shad-
tAg his aching eyes from the binding
glare. the man studied its every ex-
posed feature. his face hardening
again into lines of stern determine
ton. The girl stirred from her posi-.
ton, finging back her heavy hair
with INT hand. and looking up into his
face with eyes that read at once his
disappointment.
"Have-have you any water left?"
she asked at last, her lips parched and
burning as II from fever.
He shook the canteen dangling for
gotten at his side. There may be a
few drops" he said, handing it to her,
although scarcely removing his fixed
case from OF that dreary plain. We
shall be obliged to make those trees
yonder; there ought to be water there
In plenty, and possibly we may strike
. trail"
There was nothing more said be-
tween them. Like two autOmatOns,
they started of across the parched
grass. the heat waves rising and fall
ing as they stumbled forward. Neither
realized until then how thoroughly
that hard climb up the rocks, the
strain of continued peril, and the long
abstinence from food had Slapped their
strength. yet to remain where they
were meant certain death: all hope
found its center amid those distant
reckoning q
No one can explain later how such
deeds are ever accomplished: how the
tortured soul controls physical weak
ness. and compels strained sinews to
perform the miracle OF action when
all ambition has died. Hampton sure
~ must have both seen and known. for
he kept his direction. yet never after
wards did he regain any clear memory
q It.