way in a kind of armed truce,
smoking and watching the Indians across the square. At any moment they
expected to see the yelling demons turn against the house.

By and by Ambrose heard the library door open. The light inside had
been put out again for greater safety.

He heard Colina come out, and go the other way in the passage. He knew
her by the rustle of her skirts. She went up-stairs on some errand.

His heart leaped up. He could no longer deceive himself with the fancy
that he had ceased to love her. Not with death staring them both in
the face. He quietly made his way back into the house to intercept her
on her return.

When he heard her coming he whispered her name. Here in the middle of
the house it was totally dark.

"You!" she gasped, stopping short. But the scorn had gone out of her
voice, and somehow he knew that he was already in her thoughts when he
spoke. He put out a hand toward her.

"Don't touch me!" she whispered, shrinking sharply.

There, in the compelling darkness, with danger waiting outside, they
could not hide their souls from each other. "Colina," he whispered,
"don't harden yourself against me to-night. I love you!"

Her breath came quickly. She could not speak. Her anger against
Ambrose was, at the best, a pumped-up affair. She felt obliged to hate
him because she loved her father. And her overweening pride had
supported it. All this fell away now. She longed to believe in him.

Perceiving his advantage he followed it close.

"It may be the last night," he whispered. "I'm not afraid to speak of
death to you. You're no coward. Colina, it would be hard to die
thinking that you hated me!"

"Don't!" she murmured painfully. "Don't try to soften me. I need to
be hard."

"Not to me," he whispered. "I love you!'"

She was silent. He heard her breathing on a shaken breast.

"If I knew it was my last word I should say the same," he went on. "I
came back to Enterprise because I thought I had to come to save you!"

"It hasn't turned out that way, has it?" she said sadly and bitterly.

"There is some evil influence working against us all," he said. "If I
live I shall show you."

"I don't know what to think," she murmured.

They were standing close together. Suddenly the sense of her nearness
in the dark, the delicate emanation of her hair, of her whole person,
overwhelmed his senses like a wave.

"Oh, my darling," he murmured brokenly. "Those devils out