l as you. But I am in your hands--I am in your power.
That is why I say, John Cowles, that you must try to think, that you
must do nothing which shall make me hate you or make you hate yourself."

"I thought you missed me when I was gone," I murmured faintly.

"I did miss you," she said. "The world seemed ended for me. I needed
you, I wanted you--" I turned toward her swiftly. "Wanted me?"

"I was glad to see you come back. While you were gone I thought. Yes,
you have been brave and you have been kind, and you have been strong.
Now I am only asking you still to be brave, and kind, and strong."

"But do you love me, will you love me--can you--"

"Because we are here," she said, "I will not answer. What is right, John
Cowles, that we should do."

Woman is strongest when armored in her own weakness. My hands fell to
the ground beside me. The heats vanished from my blood. I shuddered. I
could not smile without my mouth going crooked, I fear. But at last I
smiled as best I could, and I said to her, "Ellen! Ellen!" That was all
I could find to say.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE BETROTHAL

Strength came to us as we had need, and gradually even the weaker of us
two became able to complete the day's journey without the exhaustion it
at first had cost her. Summer was now upon us, and the heat at midday
was intense, although the nights, as usual, were cold. Deprived of all
pack animals, except our dog, we were perforce reduced to the lightest
of gear, and discomfort was our continual lot. Food, however, we could
still secure, abundant meat, and sometimes the roots of plants which I
dug up and tested, though I scarce knew what they were.

We moved steadily on toward the west and northwest, but although we
crossed many old Indian trails, we saw no more of these travelers of the
Plains. At that time the country which we were traversing had no white
population, although the valley of the Platte had long been part of a
dusty transcontinental highway. It was on this highway that the savages
were that summer hanging, and even had we been certain of its exact
location, I should have feared to enter the Platte valley, lest we
should meet red men rather than white.

At times we lost the buffalo for days, more especially as we approached
the foothills of the mountains, and although antelope became more
numerous there, they were far more difficult to kill, and apt to cost us
more of our precious ammunition. I planned to myself that i