h its
silvery stream, in which they had met that first day beside the great
rock. It seemed to them both a long time ago, and the valley was like a
friend smiling up at them its welcome and its gladness that they had at
last returned. Its drone of running waters, the whispering music of the
air, and the piping cries of the marmots sunning themselves far below,
came up to them faintly as they rested, and as the Girl sat in the
circle of David's arm, with her head against his breast, she pointed off
through the blue haze miles to the eastward.

"Are we going that way?" she asked.

He had been thinking as they had climbed up the mountain. Off there,
where she was pointing, were his friends, and hers; between them and
that wandering tribe of the totem people on the Kwadocha there were no
human beings. Nothing but the unbroken peace of the mountains, in which
they were safe. He had ceased to fear their immensity--was no longer
disturbed by the thought that in their vast and trackless solitude he
might lose himself forever. After what had passed, their gleaming peaks
were beckoning to him, and he was confident that he could find his way
back to the Finley and down to Hudson's Hope. What a surprise it would
be to Father Roland when they dropped in on him some day, he and Marge!
His heart beat excitedly as he told her about it, described the great
distance they must travel, and what a wonderful journey it would be,
with that glorious country at the end of it.... "We'll find your mother,
then," he whispered. They talked a great deal about her mother and
Father Roland as they made their way down into the valley, and whenever
they stopped to rest she had new questions to ask, and each time there
was that trembling doubt in her voice. "I wonder whether it's _true_."
And each time he assured her that it was.

"I have been thinking that it was Nisikoos who sent to her that picture
you wanted to destroy," he said once. "Nisikoos must have known."

"Then why didn't she tell me?" she flashed.

"Because, it may be that she didn't want to lose you--and that she
didn't send the picture until she knew that she was not going to live
very long."

The girl's eyes darkened, and then--slowly--there came back the softer
glow into them.

"I loved--Nisikoos," she said.

It was sunset when they began making their first camp in a cedar
thicket, where David shot a porcupine for Tara and Baree. After their
supper they sat for a while in the g