ndous freedom. . . .

It would have been--knightlier, she thought quiveringly, if he had not
done that, if he had revealed a more respectful homage.

But these were American ways . . . and he was a man and he loved her and
he wanted to feel that she belonged to him utterly. It was comfort for
her troubled spirit.

But when she felt his hand trying to turn up her chin, so that her young
lips might meet his, she slipped decidedly away.

"No? All right." Johnny gave a short, uncertain laugh. "All right,
little girl, I'll be good."

She had risen to her feet and he rose now and his voice changed to a
heartier note.

"Ready for the going? We'll have to make a start, I suppose. I don't see
any rescue expeditions starting this way. . . . Lordy, I'm a starved
man! I could eat the side of a house."

"I could eat the other side," said Maria Angelina smiling shakily.

Johnny put out the fire, ground out its embers beneath his heels, and
started down upon the trail that they had come. Closely after him came
the girl. The moonlight flooded the mountain side with vague, uncertain
light and the descent was a difficult and dangerous matter.

They tripped over rocks; they stumbled through underbrush. The moon was
their only clue to direction and the moon seemed to be slipping past the
peaks at a confusing speed.

"We're going down anyway," said Johnny Byrd grimly.

Sharply they were stopped. The ledge on which they found themselves
ended abruptly, like a bluff, and peering over its edge they looked down
into the dark tops of tall fir trees.

No more descent there.

In disgusted rage Johnny strode up and down the length of that ledge
but it was a clear shelf, with no way out from it except the way that
they had come. There was no approach from below.

"And some fools go in for mountaineering!" said Johnny Byrd bitterly.

It was the last gust of humor in him. He was furious--and he grew more
furious unrestrainedly. He exploded in muttered oaths and exclamations.

In her troubled little heart Maria Angelina felt for him. She knew that
he was tired and hungry, and men, when they were hungry, were very
unhappy. But she was tired and hungry, too--and her reputation, the
reputation that was her very existence, was in jeopardy.

Up they scrambled, from the ledge again, and once back upon the mountain
side, they circled farther back around the mountain before starting down
again.

Blindly Maria Angelina followed Johnny's le