ed to the merely feminine as he was to the merely masculine.
No other laws governed them but the crude necessity to live--in
freedom.

Before them loomed the dripping wall, beyond that the road which led
to the waiting fists, beyond that the wind-swept, gray waves; behind
them rose the blank house with its darkened windows.

"Well," he said, "we must go inside."

He crossed the yard to one of the ground-floor windows and tried to
raise it. As he expected, it was locked. He thrust his elbow through a
pane just above the catch and raised it. He climbed in and told her to
wait until he opened the door. It seemed an hour before he reappeared,
framed in the dark entrance. He held out his hand to her.

"Come in," he bade her.

She obeyed, moving on tiptoe.

CHAPTER II

_Chance Provides_

For a moment after he had closed the door they stood side by side, she
pressing close to him. She shivered the length of her slight frame.
The hesitancy which had come to him with the first impress of the
lightless silence about them vanished.

"Come," he said, taking her hand, "we must find a light and build a
fire."

He groped his way back to the window and closed it, drawing the
curtain tight down over it. Then he struck a match and held it above
his head.

At the flash of light the girl dropped his hand and shrank back in
sudden trepidation. So long as he remained in the shadows he had been
to her only a power without any more definite personality than that of
sex. Now that she was thrown into closer contact with him, by the mere
curtailing of the distances around and above her, she was conscious of
the need of further knowledge of the man. The very power which had
defended her, unless in the control of a still higher power, might
turn against her. The match flickered feebly in the damp air,
revealing scantily a small room which looked like a laundry. It was
enough, however, to disclose a shelf upon which rested a bit of
candle. He lighted this.

She watched him closely, and as the wick sputtered into life she
grasped eagerly at every detail it revealed. She stood alert as a
fencer before an unknown antagonist. Then he turned and, with this
steadier light above his head, stepped towards her.

She saw eyes of light blue meeting her own of brown quite fearlessly.
His lean face and the shock of sandy hair above it made an instant
appeal to her. She knew he was a man she could trust within doors as
fully as she had