er only at close quarters. It was no
longer a time for doubt or indecision. Brokaw and Hauck were
deliberately pushing the fight to a finish, and not to beat them meant
death for himself and a fate for the Girl which made him grip his rifle
more tightly as he waited. He looked behind him and saw Marge leading
Tara into the cabin. Baree had crept up beside him and lay flat on the
ground close to the rock. A moment or two later the Girl reappeared and
ran across the narrow open space to David, and crouched down close to
him.

"You must go into the cabin, Marge," he remonstrated. "They will
probably begin shooting...."

"I'm going to stay with you, _Sakewawin_."

Her face was no longer white. A flush had risen into her cheeks, her
eyes shone as she looked at him--and she smiled. A child! His heart rose
chokingly in his throat. Her face was close to his, and she whispered:

"Last night I kissed you, _Sakewawin_. I thought you were dying. Before
you, I have kissed Nisikoos. Never any one else."

Why did she say that, with that wonderful glow in her eyes? Couldn't be
that she saw death climbing up the mountain? Was it because she wanted
him to know--before that? A child!

She whispered again:

"And you--have never kissed me, _Sakewawin_. Why?"

Slowly he drew her to him, until her head lay against his breast, her
shining eyes and parted lips turned up to him, and he kissed her on the
mouth. A wild flood of colour rushed into her face and her arms crept up
about his shoulders. The glory of her radiant hair covered his breast.
He buried his face in it, and for a moment crushed her so close that she
did not breathe. And then again he kissed her mouth, not once but a
dozen times, and then held her back from him and looked into her face
that was no longer the face of a child, but of a woman.

"Because...." he began, and stopped.

Baree was growling. David peered down the slope.

"They are coming!" he said. "Marge, you must creep back to the cabin!"

"I am going to stay with you, _Sakewawin_. See, I will flatten myself
out like this--with Baree."

She snuggled herself down against the rock and again David peered from
his ambush. Their pursuers were well over the crest of the dip, and he
counted nine. They were advancing in a group and he saw that both Hauck
and Brokaw were in the rear and that they were using staffs in their
toil upward, and did not carry rifles. The remaining seven were armed,
and were headed by La