ng for her fingers, but could not find them.
She saw, and slowly, very slowly, her hand crept to mine and was caught
and held there.

"Desiree--I want it," I said half fiercely, and I forgot my pain and
our danger--forgot everything but her white face in dim outline above
me, and her eyes, glowing and tender against her wish, and her hand
that nestled in my hand. "Be merciful to me--I want it as I have never
wanted anything in my life. Desiree, I love you."

At that I felt her hand move quickly, as for freedom, but I held it
fast. And then slowly her head was lowered. I waited breathlessly. I
felt her quick breath on my face, and the next moment her lips had
found my lips, hot and dry, and remained there.

Then she raised her head, saying tremulously:

"That was my soul, and it is the first time it has ever escaped me."

At the same instant we were startled by the sound of Harry's voice in
the darkness:

"Desiree! Where are you?"

I waited for her to answer, but she was silent, and I called out to him
our direction. A moment later his form appeared at a distance, and
soon he had joined us.

"How about it, old man?" he asked, bending over me.

Then he told us that he had found no water. He had explored two sides
of the cavern, one at a distance of half a mile or more, and was
crossing to find the third when he had called to us.

"But there is little use," he finished gloomily. "The place is silent
as the grave. If there were water we would hear it. I can't even find
an exit except the crevice that let us in."

Desiree's hand was still in mine.

"It may be--perhaps I can go with you," I suggested. But he would not
hear of it, and set out again alone in the opposite direction to that
which he had taken previously.

In a few minutes he returned, reporting no better success than before.
On that side, he said, the wall of the cavern was quite close. There
was no sign anywhere of water; but to the left there were several
narrow lanes leading at angles whose sides were nearly parallel to each
other, and some distance to the right there was a broad and clear
passage sloping downward directly away from the cavern.

"Is the passage straight?" I asked, struck with a sudden idea. "Could
you see far within?"

"A hundred feet or so," was the answer. "Why? Shall we follow it?
Can you walk?"

"I think so," I answered. "At any rate, I must find some water soon or
quit the game. But that isn't why I