ould he, just before a second night of
dread was closing in upon her.

In circles of ever increasing radius he traveled at a foxtrot which
thoughts of Fallon and Shayne and Harrigan would not let him abandon;
but he had to run her down when he caught sight of her, for she fled
like a wild thing before him. Floundering in a cedar swamp, soaked to
the knees, little blue be-furred suit heavy with black muck, he came up
with her. She was kneeling, shaking with terror, face hidden by her
loosened hair, when he bent over her and raised her to her feet.

"Please," she whimpered, "Oh, please----"

Yet when he spoke her name her head leaped back and she recognized him
instantly.

"I tried to wait," she chattered with all the voice she had left. "I
tried to sit still until someone came for me, but I thought I knew the
way. I tried not to listen to the noises; I remembered about the
stars; and I knew I shouldn't run. But I thought you were--I thought
you were----"

Remembered terror choked her. Consciousness slipped away.

By the same trail which once had led him to the "city" of Morrison he
carried her now to that cabin which stood on the balsam knoll in the
crook of the west branch; nor was it far for she had traveled straight,
though in the wrong direction. But it was long after dark when the
river gleamed ahead of him through the trees, jet and glassy in the
deep pools, streaked with blurred star-reflections in the riffles. A
grown woman is a grown man's burden, even though she seem very small to
him; and Steve had to travel slowly. His head was spinning from
fatigue and the throb of the jagged tear above his temple when the log
building, streaked white with clay chinking, loomed up ahead, and yet
involuntarily he stopped there a moment with his burden.

He had pictured, many times, a night when he would bring her there,
with both of them watching the moon in the rapids and listening to the
waves lipping the banks. This was not that night; that night would
never be. But the rebellion and bitterness was gone from his heart.
After he had removed her wet shoes and stockings and brush-whipped suit
and sheer black blouse, and she slept the sleep of exhaustion into
which she had slipped from unconsciousness without even opening her
eyes, he built a fire and sat before it until morning came. And when
it dawned and she waked dazedly while he was preparing breakfast, he
had finished reconstructing many things.

He