esently there came the sound of a
furiously galloping horse. The drumming of the hoofbeats died in the
distance.

During the rest of the day she saw no more of the man. It swept over
her toward evening in a wave of despair that he had left her to her
fate.

Chapter XXIV

The Bad Man Decides not to Shoot

Beulah woke from a sleep of exhaustion to a world into which the
morning light was just beginning to sift. The cold had penetrated to
her bones. She was stiff and cramped and sore from the pressure of the
rock bed against her tender young flesh. For nearly two days she had
been without food or drink. The urge of life in her was at low tide.

But the traditions among which she had been brought up made pluck a
paramount virtue. She pushed from her the desire to weep in self-pity
over her lot. Though her throat was raw and swollen, she called at
regular intervals during the morning hours while the sun climbed into
view of her ten-foot beat. Even when it rode the heavens a red-hot
cannon ball directly above her, the hoarse and lonely cry of the girl
echoed back from the hillside every few minutes. There were times when
she wanted to throw herself down and give up to despair, but she knew
there would be opportunity for that when she could no longer fight for
her life. The shadow was beginning to climb the eastern wall of the
pit before Beaudry's shout reached her ears faintly. Her first thought
was that she must already be delirious. Not till she saw him at the
edge of the prospect hole was she sure that her rescuer was a reality.

At the first sight of her Roy wanted to trumpet to high heaven the joy
that flooded his heart. He had found her--alive. After the torment of
the night and the worry of the day he had come straight to her in his
wandering, and he had reached her in time.

But when he saw her condition pity welled up in him. Dark hollows had
etched themselves into her cheeks. Tears swam in her eyes. Her lips
trembled weakly from emotion. She leaned against the side of the pit
to support her on account of the sudden faintness that engulfed her
senses. He knelt and stretched his hands toward her, but the pit was
too deep.

"You'll have to get a pole or a rope," she told him quietly.

Beaudry found the dead trunk of a young sapling and drew the girl up
hand over hand. On the brink she stumbled and he caught her in his
arms to save her from falling back into the prospect hole.

Fo