spite of myself I shuddered;
yet she was so calm, so wonderful in her abiding faith of catching up
with me on that Long Trail that knows no turning back, that my heart,
too, burned with a flame more enduring than the love of mortals. Without
a word I took the small revolver from her hand, and in its place put
mine of larger, more reliable, caliber. Understanding, she looked
gratefully up at me, her eyes filling with tears even as she smiled and
whispered:

"Now I can do it without being afraid."

"By the God above us," I groaned in my agony, "you'll never have to! For
your sake I'll beat off twice that many men!"

"Then don't think of it again, my ferocious, terrible Chancellor," she
laughed a little--but I knew, with a sob tearing at my throat, that her
playful mood, intended as a tonic for my nerves, was the bravest thing
she had yet done. "Look, Jack! They're doing something!"

"They're spreading out," I said, tensely.

Her excitement suddenly died. In its place came a pathetic look of
wistfulness as she raised her face to mine and, with a quick sob,
whispered:

"Oh, very own mine, try to let me cook your dinner again to-night?"

CHAPTER XXIII

THE ATTACK

When after this I looked across the parapet I was as a man of highly
tempered steel. The compact mass had begun to disintegrate, spreading in
both directions until their flanks must have been an eighth of a mile
apart. Then they advanced.

On a guess I judged their line to be quite fifteen hundred yards away
because each unit looked about the size of a pea; and, as these
represented the upper halves of men, the distance was too great to open
fire. So I raised my sight to a thousand yards and waited. My nerves
were steady with a purpose deep-set in me, for I was about to shoot for
the greatest trophy of my life, so when the line had advanced a third of
the way I took careful aim, and fired. A second passed; then my target
disappeared.

"Is he hit or hiding?" Doloria asked excitedly, adding with a little
gasp: "He's hit, for some are going to him--see?"

"I believe he is," I agreed, taking another careful aim at one who had
not started to his comrade's assistance. He, too, disappeared, and
immediately afterwards all of them ducked from view.

"That's awkward," I growled. "They'll do some crawling up, now!"

"They won't dare come close after that," she cried, "for I know you hit
one!" Yet this might have been what Echochee would have called