nding still like fairy spear blades menacing the
shadows which still clung to the lofty ceiling. Giving added light was
a blazing fire of pine cones at the far side of the cave, near the
mouth of the passage leading to the cleft where the water shot down.
Strewn across the whole floor, masking its rough surface, were pine
needles which, while they made a thick mat underfoot, filled the cave
with their resinous tang. And there was another odour, agreeable,
homelike. Shandon looked again at the fire; set on each side of a bed
of coals were two flat stones, perched on the stones a battered,
blackened old coffee pot.

"I called you a witch, didn't I, Wanda?"

"You might at least have called me a Fairy," she retorted, her eyes
bright with the joy of a day-dream come true.

"Did you conjure this out of a broken eggshell with a wand? Is this
how you got your name, Wanda?"

She took him on a tour of exploration, pointing out each little thing
which she had already seen alone, which, when she had seen it had
promised her a day like to-day when she could show it to him. They
went down the sloping passageway and stood for a little while silently
before the chasm with its din of falling waters. They speculated upon
what might lie upon the farther side if a man could cross. They came
back to the fire and Wayne was shown how the air drew through the cave
so that the passageway at the back gave exit to the smoke. They had
just a peep, for Wanda would allow him no more now, into a hidden
recess not five steps from her fireplace where there were mysterious
packages hinting that they might be bacon and butter and sugar and
coffee. And then they came back to the screened entrance and stepped
outside. Wanda held up her field glasses to him.

"Look out that way," she ordered him. "No, Goosy. Not at the trunk of
the tree. Between those two branches yonder. What do you see?"

He adjusted the glasses while she watched his face. And he found the
clearing about the Bar L-M headquarters, the buildings themselves set
upon the knoll.

"It's wonderful," he cried. "Why, we could signal--"

"Wait a minute," she interrupted brightly. "This isn't your discovery,
not a bit of it. It's all mine and I'm jealous of it. And I've
thought it all out. Now, if you'll come inside we'll have a cup of
coffee and a sandwich which you'll eat politely just as though you were
hungry."

"I'm starved!"

"And I'll tell you _my_ invention.