nk
again, lying side by side at a pool. Then Jim filled Betty's "bucket"
and they returned to their place of refuge. Kendric arranged the
boughs for Betty and made her lie down. By the time he had carved and
fitted a plug into their "water bottle" Betty was asleep.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN

But Kendric himself did not sleep. He sat by their dead fire and
watched the gradual thinning of the darkness about him as the vague
light filtered in from the awakening outside world. He looked at Betty
sleeping, only to look away with a frown darkening his eyes. She would
sleep heavily and long; she would awake refreshed and--hungry. He was
hungry already.

"It's open and shut," he told himself. "It's up to me to forage."

And it was as clear that there was always a risk of being seen as he
left their hiding place. That risk would increase as the day
brightened. Hence, since he must go, it were best not to tarry. He
found in his pocket a stub of pencil and an old envelope. On it he
wrote a brief message, placing it on the ground near her outflung hand,
laying Bruce's pistol upon it.

"I'm off to fill the larder. Stick close until I come back. If I'm
long gone it will be because I can't help it. But be sure I'll be back
all right and bring something to eat. Jim."

He left her, not without uneasiness, but eager to hurry away so that,
if all went well, his return might be hastened. He took the rifle and
slipped cautiously through the bushes, stopping to make what assurance
he could that he was not being seen, crawling for the most part across
the open places, keeping as much as possible where boulders or trees
hid him. He had already made his tentative plans; he made his way down
into the bed of the ravine and thence upstream. Swiftly the light
increased over the still solitudes. The sun was up on the highlands,
the canons only were still dusky.

He found a place where he could stand hidden and see the cliff-broken
slope where Betty was. Here he stood motionless for a long time,
watching. For he knew that if by chance someone had seen him and had
not followed it was because that someone had elected rather to seek the
girl. At last, when the stillness remained unbroken and he saw no
stirring thing, he expressed his relief in a deep sigh and went on.

His plan was to work his way up the ravine until at last he topped the
ridge and went down on th