every time she repeated his name de Spain cared less for what
should happen in the rest of the world, "what are we going to do now?
We can't stay here all night--and take what they will greet us with in
the morning."

He answered her question with another: "What about trying to get out
by El Capitan?"

She started in spite of herself. "I mean," he added, "just to have a
look over there, Nan."

"How could you even have a look a night like this?" she asked,
overcome at the thought of the dizzy cliff. "It would be certain
death, Henry."

"I don't mean at the worst to try to cross it till we get a glimpse of
daylight. But it's quite a way over there. I remember some good
hiding-places along that trail. We may find one where I can build a
little fire and dry you out. I'm more worried over you being wet all
night than the rest of it. The question is, Can we find a trail up to
where we want to go?"

"I know two or three," she answered, "if they are only not flooded."

The storm seemed to have passed, but the darkness was intense, and
from above the northern Superstitions came low mutterings of thunder.
Compelled to strike out over the rocks to get up to any of the trails
toward El Capitan, Nan, helped by de Spain when he could help, led the
ascent toward the first ledge they could hope to follow on their
dangerous course.

The point at which the two climbed almost five hundred feet that night
up Music Mountain is still pointed out in the Gap. An upturned rock at
the foot, a stunted cedar jutting from the ledge at the point they
finally gained, marked the beginning and end of their effort. No
person, looking at that confused wall, willingly believes it could
ever have been scaled in the dead of night. Torn, bruised, and
exhausted, Nan, handed up by her lover, threw herself at last
prostrate on the ledge at the real beginning of their trail, and from
that vantage-point they made their way along the eastern side of Music
Mountain for two miles before they stopped again to rest.

It was already well after midnight. A favoring spot was seized on by
de Spain for the resting-place he wanted. A dry recess beneath an
overhanging wall made a shelter for the fire that he insisted on
building to warm Nan in her soaked clothing. He found cedar roots in
the dark and soon had a blaze going. It was dangerous, both realized,
to start a fire, but they concealed the blaze as best they could and
took the chance--a chance that more nea