mind, he felt.

As to what he would do if Colina made no move, Ambrose could not make
up his mind. He considered a night expedition to the fort; he
considered sending a message by Tole. Either plan had serious
disadvantages. It was a hard nut to crack.

Then he heard hoofs on the prairie overhead. His heart leaped up and
his problems were forgotten. He sprang to the bank. Job heard the
hoofs, too, and recognized the horse. Job hopped into the empty
dugout, and lay down in the bow out of sight, like a child in disgrace.

At the sight of her racing toward him a dizzying joy swept over
Ambrose; but something was wrong. She stopped short of him, and his
heart seemed to stop, too.

She was pale; her eyes had a dark look. An inward voice whispered to
him that it was no more than to be expected; his happiness had been too
swift, too bright to be real.

He went toward her. "Colina!" he cried apprehensively.

"Don't touch me!" she said sharply.

He stopped. "What is the matter?" he faltered.

She made no move to dismount. She did not look at him. "I--I have had
a bad night," she murmured. "I came to throw myself on your
generosity."

"Generosity?" he echoed.

"To--to ask you to forget what happened last night. I was mad!"

Ambrose had become as pale as she. He had nothing to say.

She stole a glance at his face. At the sight of his blank, sick dismay
she quickly turned her head. A little color came back to her cheeks.

There was a silence.

At last he said huskily: "What has happened to change you?"

"Nothing," she murmured. "I have come to my senses." His stony face
and his silence terrified her. "Aren't you a little relieved?" she
faltered. "It must have been a kind of madness in you, too."

He raised a sudden, penetrating glance to her face. She could not meet
it. It came to him that he was being put to a test. The revulsion of
feeling made him brutal. Striding forward, he seized her horse by the
rein.

"Get off!" he harshly commanded.

Colina had no thought but to obey.

He tied the rein to a limb and, turning back, seized her roughly by the
wrists.

"What kind of a game is this?" he demanded.

Colina, breathless, terrified, delighted, laughed shakily.

He dropped her as suddenly as he had seized her, and walked away to the
edge of the bank and sat down, staring sightlessly across the river and
striving to still the tumult of his blood. He was frightened by his
own pass