hiding-place in the face of the
cliff, they could laugh at Graham's pack of beasts while they waited for
the swift vengeance that would come with Stampede and the herdsmen.

He watched the sky. It was clearing steadily. Even the mists in the
hollows were beginning to melt away, and in place of their dissolution
came faintly rose-tinted lights. It was the hour of dawn; the sun sent a
golden glow over the disintegrating curtain of gloom that still lay
between it and the tundras, and objects a hundred paces away no longer
held shadow or illusionment.

The girl did not pause, but continued to run lightly and with surprising
speed, heeding only the direction which he gave her. Her endurance
amazed him. And he knew that without questioning him she had guessed the
truth of what lay behind them. Then, all at once, she stopped, swayed
like a reed, and would have fallen if his arms had not caught her.

"Splendid!" he cried.

She lay gasping for breath, her face against his breast. Her heart was a
swiftly beating little dynamo.

They had gained the edge of a shallow ravine that reached within half a
mile of the kloof. It was this shelter he had hoped for, and Mary's
splendid courage had won it for them.

He picked her up in his arms and carried her again, as he had carried
her through the nigger-head bottom. Every minute, every foot of
progress, counted now. Range of vision was widening. Pools of sunlight
were flecking the plains. In another quarter of an hour moving objects
would be distinctly visible a mile away.

With his precious burden in his arms, her lips so near that he could
feel their breath, her heart throbbing, he became suddenly conscious of
the incongruity of the bird-song that was wakening all about them. It
seemed inconceivable that this day, glorious in its freshness, and
welcomed by the glad voice of all living things, should be a day of
tragedy, of horror, and of impending doom for him. He wanted to shout
out his protest and say that it was all a lie, and it seemed absurd that
he should handicap himself with the weight and inconvenient bulk of his
rifle when his arms wanted to hold only that softer treasure which
they bore.

In a little while Mary was traveling at his side again. And from then on
he climbed at intervals to the higher swellings of the gully edge and
scanned the tundra. Twice he saw men, and from their movements he
concluded their enemies believed they were hidden somewhere on the
tundr