laugh, shut his eyes, and met
her in a long, whole kiss. Her mouth fused with his; their bodies were
sealed and annealed. It was some minutes before they withdrew. They were
standing beside the public path.

"Will you go down to the river?" he asked.

She looked at him, leaving herself in his hands. He went over the brim
of the declivity and began to climb down.

"It is slippery," he said.

"Never mind," she replied.

The red clay went down almost sheer. He slid, went from one tuft
of grass to the next, hanging on to the bushes, making for a little
platform at the foot of a tree. There he waited for her, laughing with
excitement. Her shoes were clogged with red earth. It was hard for her.
He frowned. At last he caught her hand, and she stood beside him. The
cliff rose above them and fell away below. Her colour was up, her eyes
flashed. He looked at the big drop below them.

"It's risky," he said; "or messy, at any rate. Shall we go back?"

"Not for my sake," she said quickly.

"All right. You see, I can't help you; I should only hinder. Give me
that little parcel and your gloves. Your poor shoes!"

They stood perched on the face of the declivity, under the trees.

"Well, I'll go again," he said.

Away he went, slipping, staggering, sliding to the next tree, into which
he fell with a slam that nearly shook the breath out of him. She
came after cautiously, hanging on to the twigs and grasses. So they
descended, stage by stage, to the river's brink. There, to his disgust,
the flood had eaten away the path, and the red decline ran straight into
the water. He dug in his heels and brought himself up violently. The
string of the parcel broke with a snap; the brown parcel bounded down,
leaped into the water, and sailed smoothly away. He hung on to his tree.

"Well, I'll be damned!" he cried crossly. Then he laughed. She was
coming perilously down.

"Mind!" he warned her. He stood with his back to the tree, waiting.
"Come now," he called, opening his arms.

She let herself run. He caught her, and together they stood watching the
dark water scoop at the raw edge of the bank. The parcel had sailed out
of sight.

"It doesn't matter," she said.

He held her close and kissed her. There was only room for their four
feet.

"It's a swindle!" he said. "But there's a rut where a man has been, so
if we go on I guess we shall find the path again."

The river slid and twined its great volume. On the other bank cattle