e roar of
the river was to him as the roar of the sea; his eyes smarted from the
clammy touch of the dingy froth that went hurrying by in monster flakes;
his lungs ached and his heart pounded heavily against his ribs when he
stopped, gasping, beyond reach of the water-devils that lapped viciously
behind.

He stood a minute with his arm still around her, and coughed his voice
clear. "Park went down," he began, hardly knowing what it was he was
saying. "Park--" He stopped, then shouted the name aloud. "Park! Oh-h,
Park!"

And from somewhere down the river came a faint reassuring whoop.

"Thank the Lord!" gasped Thurston, and leaned against her for a second.
Then he straightened. "Are you all right?" he asked, and drew her toward
a rock near at hand--for in truth, the knees of him were shaking. They
sat down, and he looked more closely at her face and discovered that
it was wet with something more than river water. Mona the self-assured,
Mona the strong-hearted, was crying. And instinctively he knew that not
the chill alone made her shiver. He was keeping his arm around her waist
deliberately, and it pleased him that she let it stay. After a minute
she did something which surprised him mightily--and pleased him more:
she dropped her face down against the soaked lapels of his coat, and
left it there. He laid a hand tenderly against her cheek and wondered if
he dared feel so happy.

"Little girl--oh, little girl," he said softly, and stopped. For the
crowding emotions in his heart and brain the English language has no
words.

Mona lifted her face and looked into his eyes. Her own were soft and
shining in the moonlight, and she was smiling a little--the roguish
little smile of the imitation pastel portrait. "You--you'll unpack your
typewriter, won't you please, and--and stay?"

Thurston crushed her close. "Stay? The range-land will never get rid
of me now," he cried jubilantly. "Hank wanted to take me into the Lazy
Eight, so now I'll buy an interest, and stay--always."

"You dear!" Mona snuggled close and learned how it feels to be kissed,
if she had never known before.

Sunfish, having scrambled ashore a few yards farther down, came up to
them and stood waiting, as if to be forgiven for his failure to carry
them safe to land, but Thurston, after the first inattentive glance,
ungratefully took no heed of him.

There was a sound of scrambling foot-steps and Park came dripping up to
them. "Well, say!" he greeted. "A