rose the white world in a cold, shimmering
glory. In that starlight he could see the glisten of Celie's hair as it
covered them like a golden veil, and once or twice through the space
that separated them he caught the flash of a strange fire in the
outlaw's eyes. Both shores were visible. He could have seen the
approach of a man two hundred yards away.

After a little he observed that Blake's head was drooping upon his
chest, and that his breathing had become deeper. His prisoner, he
believed, was asleep. And Celie, nestling on his breast, was soon in
slumber. He alone was awake,--and watching. The dogs, flat on their
bellies, were dead to the world. For an hour he kept his vigil. In that
time he could not see that Blake moved. He heard nothing suspicious.
And the night grew steadily brighter with the white glow of the stars.
He held the revolver in his hand now. The starlight played on it in a
steely glitter that could not fail to catch Blake's eyes should he
awake.

And then Philip found himself fighting--fighting desperately to keep
awake. Again and again his eyes closed, and he forced them open with an
effort. He had planned that they would rest for two or three hours. The
two hours were gone when for the twentieth time his eyes shot open, and
he looked at Blake. The outlaw had not moved. His head hung still lower
on his breast, and again--slowly--irresistibly--exhaustion closed
Philip's eyes. Even then Philip was conscious of fighting against the
overmastering desire to sleep. It seemed to him that he was struggling
for hours, and all that time his subconsciousness was crying out for
him to awake, struggling to rouse him to the nearness of a great
danger. It succeeded at last. His eyes opened, and he stared in a dazed
and half blinded tray toward Blake. His first sensation was one of vast
relief that he had awakened. The stars were brighter. The night was
still. And there, a dozen paces from him was the snow-hummock.

But Blake--Blake--

His heart leapt into his throat.

BLAKE WAS GONE!

CHAPTER XXIV

The shock of the discovery that Blake had escaped brought Philip half
to his knees before he thought of Celie. In an instant the girl was
awake. His arm had tightened almost fiercely about her. She caught the
gleam of his revolver, and in another moment she saw the empty space
where their prisoner had been. Swiftly Philip's eyes traveled over the
moonlit spaces about them. Blake had utterly disappear