he desire
to go.

Jack once had seen a copy of a wonderful picture of Ishmael in the
desert, whom Abraham had cast out with his mother, Hagar. Hagar had gone
to find some fuel and the child is alone. Around him is a great, grey
plain, with nothing else alive on it. There was something in this Indian
girl's position, her fragile grace, and dreadful loneliness, that
recalled this picture to Jacqueline Ralston's mind. She put her arm
gently over the other girl's shoulder.

The Indian maid looked up. Perhaps it was the difference in her
appearance and in Jacqueline's that made her eyes fill with tears.
Jack's proud, high-bred face was softened to pity. Her grey eyes were
tender and the usual proud curve to her lips was changed to an
expression that she seldom showed to any one but Frieda or Jean since
her father's death.

"We must go back to our home now," Jack explained kindly, "but we can't
leave you here alone. Tell us why you ran away? Don't you think you
could return; or is there anything we could do for you?"

The girl shook her head. She was as tall as Jean, but so thin that she
might be only an overgrown child. She seemed very young to Jacqueline;
almost as young as Frieda and as much in need of some one to take care
of her.

The three ranch girls were gazing intently at the stranger.

She flung her hands up over her face again. "I can't go back, I can't,"
she insisted. "You are to go away. I am not afraid. Only let me stay in
this ravine, until I can find some place that is further away, where no
one can find me. I shall not be hungry, I can hunt and fish. Only to-day
I am tired." She shook, as though she were having a chill.

Jacqueline dropped down on the ground by her side. Frieda and Jean were
trying not to cry.

"You poor little thing, you know we can't leave you here," Jack
declared. "Won't you? Can't you?" Jack looked appealingly at Jean and
Frieda. She was the oldest of the ranch girls, but she never decided
anything without their advice. Both of them nodded. "Don't you think you
could come home to the ranch with us, until you feel better and can tell
us what troubles you? You are ill now and worn out. Why you might even
die if you stayed here alone."

Jack did not wait for an answer. She almost lifted the Indian girl to
her feet and brought her out of Frieda's cave. She helped her upon her
own pony, and getting up behind Frieda, she led Hotspur and his new
rider to the beloved Rainbow Ranch hou