from her bosom, shook out the few rings and unset stones
left in it, and returned the larger jewels to it, and gave it into his
hand, still warm from its soft resting place. At the same moment Harry
arrived, leading the animals. He lifted his head courageously and his
eyes shone as with an inspiration.

"Will you let me accompany you a bit of the way, sir? I'd like to go."
Larry accepted gladly. He knew then what he would do with Amalia's
dowry. "Then I'll bring Goldbug. Thank you, Amalia, yes. I'll drink my
coffee now, and eat as I ride." He ran back for his horse and soon
returned, and then drank his coffee and snatched a bite, while Amalia
and Larry slung the bags of food and the water on the mule and made
all ready for the start. As he ate, he tried to arouse and encourage
the mother, but she remained stolid until they were in the saddle,
when she rose and followed them a few steps, and said in her deep
voice: "Yes, I ask a thing. You will find Paul, my 'usband. Tell him
to come to me--it is best--no more,--I cannot in English." Then
turning to her daughter she spoke volubly in her own tongue, and waved
her hand imperiously toward the men.

"Yes, mamma. I tell all you say." Amalia took a step away from the
door, and her mother returned to her seat by the fire.

"It is so sad. My mother thinks my father is returned to our own
country and that you go there. She thinks you are our friend Sir
McBride in disguise, and that you go to help my father. She fears you
will be taken and sent to Siberia, and says tell my father it is
enough. He must no more try to save our fatherland: that our noblemen
are full of ingratitude, and that he must return to her and live
hereafter in peace."

"Let be so. It's a saving hallucination. Tell her if I find your
father, I will surely deliver the message." And the two men rode away
up the trail, conversing earnestly.

Larry Kildene explained to Harry about the jewels, and turned them
over to his keeping. "I had to take them, you see. You hide them in
that chamber I showed you, along with the gold bars. Hang it around
your neck, man, until you get back. It has rested on her bosom, and
if I were a young man like you, that fact alone would make it sacred
to me. It's her dowry, she said. I'd sooner part with my right hand
than take it from her."

"So would I." Harry took the case tenderly, and hid it as directed,
and went on to ask the favor he had accompanied Larry to ask. It was
that