for the upper regions of
the air. By the time it was fully dark she knew that Prime was lost, and
in this new terror she was able to forget, in some measure at least, the
effects of her late illness. Bestirring herself once more, she put more
wood on the fire, hoping that it might blaze high enough to serve as a
signal for the wanderer.

It was all she could do, and having done it she sat down to wait, her
anxiety growing sharper as the evening wore on and there was neither
sight nor sound to foreshadow the lost one's return.

XVIII

HEIGHTS AND DEPTHS

If she had not known it before, Lucetta was to learn now that sickness
of any sort is but a poor preparation for a battle of anxiety and
endurance. On the one other occasion when she had been thrown upon her
own resources Prime had been at least visibly present, and his
helplessness had given her strength to fight off the terrors. But now
she was alone and the terrors pressed thickly.

What if something had happened to the rabbit-hunter? She knew his utter
lack of gun dexterity, and her terrified imagination conjured up
harrowing pictures of the missing one lying wounded and helpless in some
distant forest solitude, a victim of his unselfish effort to provide not
for his own needs but for hers. The thought was a keen torture, but she
could not banish it, and as the hours lengthened it threatened to drive
her mad. There was nothing she could do save to keep the fire burning
brightly, and this she did, breaking the monotony of the unnerving
suspense from time to time by collecting dry wood to heap upon the
blaze.

It was nearly midnight before the agony came to a sudden end. She was
lying on the blanket pallet, with her face hidden in the crook of an
elbow when she looked up and saw Prime standing beside her. It was not
in human nature to undergo the revulsion from the depths of despair
calmly.

"Donald!" she shrieked faintly, and forgetting her weakness, she sprang
up and flung herself into his arms, sobbing in an ecstasy of relief.

He took it in good brotherly fashion, and if the fraternal attitude was
not strictly sincere, it was made to appear so.

"There, there, little woman," he comforted, "you mustn't turn loose that
way--you'll make yourself sick again. It's all over now, and I got your
rabbit. See, here it is"--drawing it from his pocket and dangling it
before her as if it were a new t