nds and knees and then lowered herself flat
on the ground and began crawling into the hollow under the boulder.

Baree had moved. With the back of his head flattened against the rock,
he had heard something which Nepeese had not heard. He had felt a slow
and growing pressure, and from this pressure he had dragged himself
slowly--and the pressure still followed. The mass of rock was settling!
Nepeese did not see or hear or understand. She was calling to him more
and more pleadingly:

"Baree--Baree--Baree--"

Her head and shoulders and both arms were under the rock now. The glow
of her eyes was very close to Baree. He whined. The thrill of a great
and impending danger stirred in his blood. And then--

In that moment Nepeese felt the pressure of the rock on her shoulder,
and into the eyes that had been glowing softly at Baree there shot a
sudden wild look of horror. And then there came from her lips a cry
that was not like any other sound Baree had ever heard in the
wilderness--wild, piercing, filled with agonized fear. Pierrot did not
hear that first cry. But he heard the second and the third--and then
scream after scream as the Willow's tender body was slowly crushed
under the settling mass. He ran toward it with the speed of the wind.
The cries were now weaker--dying away. He saw Baree as he came out from
under the rock and ran into the canyon, and in the same instant he saw
a part of the Willow's dress and her moccasined feet. The rest of her
was hidden under the deathtrap. Like a madman Pierrot began digging.

When a few moments later he drew Nepeese out from under the boulder she
was white and deathly still. Her eyes were closed. His hand could not
feel that she was living, and a great moan of anguish rose out of his
soul. But he knew how to fight for a life. He tore open her dress and
found that she was not crushed as he had feared. Then he ran for water.
When he returned, the Willow's eyes were open and she was gasping for
breath.

"The blessed saints be praised!" sobbed Pierrot, falling on his knees
at her side. "Nepeese, ma Nepeese!"

She smiled at him, and Pierrot drew her up to him, forgetting the water
he had run so hard to get.

Still later, when he got down on his knees and peered under the rock,
his face turned white and he said:

"Mon Dieu, if it had not been for that little hollow in the earth,
Nepeese--"

He shuddered, and said no more. But Nepeese, happy in her salvation,
made a movement wi