ged herself to plead; to look directly up into his
perplexed eyes. He leaned an arm on the mantel, staggered. His eyes
followed hers in every word she spoke, and when she ceased he stared
blankly at the fire.

"Heed you?" he answered, haltingly. "Heed you? You are all in the
world that I have to heed. My only wish is your happiness; to die for
it, Gertrude, wouldn't be much----"

"All, all I ask is that you will live for it."

"Worthless as I am, I have asked you to put that happiness in my
keeping--do you think your lightest word could pass me unheeded? But
to this, my dearest Gertrude, every instinct of manhood binds me--to go
to my friend in danger."

"If you go you will take every desperate chance to accomplish your end.
Ah, I know you better than you know yourself. Ab, Ab, my darling, my
lover, listen to me. Don't; don't go."

When he spoke she would not have known his voice. "Can I let him die
there like a dog on the mountain side? Can't you see what I haven't
words to explain as you could explain--the position it puts me in?
Don't sob. Don't be afraid; look at me. I'll come back to you,
darling."

She turned her tearless eyes to the mountains. "Back! Yes. I see the
end. My lover will come back--come back dead. And I shall try to kiss
his brave lips back to life and they will speak no more. And I shall
stand when they take him from me, lonely and alone. My father that I
have estranged--my foster-mother that I have withstood--my sister that
I have repelled--will their tears flow for me then? And for this I
broke from my traditions and cast away associations, gave up all my
little life, stood alone against my family, poured out my heart to
these deserts, these mountains, and now--they rob me of my all--and
this is love!"

He stood like a broken man. "God help me, have I laid on your dear
head the curse of my own life? Must you, too, suffer because our
perils force us lightly to pawn our lives one for another? One night
in that yard"--he pointed to the window--"I stood between the rails
with a switch engine running me down. I knew nothing of it. There was
no time to speak, no time to think--it was on me. Had Blood left me
there one second I never should have looked into your dear face. Up on
the hill with Hailey and Brodie, under the gravel and shale, I should
never have cost your heart an ache like this. Better the engine had
struck me then and spared you now----"

"No, I say,