et him go!" shouted the girl. "Let him go! He is my father! Can't
you hear?"

The words penetrated just as he was about to shove once more.

"Your father?"

"Quick! We are sinking!"

He let go. The Priest sprang to his feet. The canoe had gone and the
loosely constructed raft was settling as timber after timber freed
itself. Sorez, himself again, saw this. Without a word he shoved once
more,--this time himself alone. He went down and the raft floated. He
had kept his word after all; he had given the girl her father.

CHAPTER XXVI

_A Lucky Bad Shot_

As soon as they recovered sufficient strength to desire anything more
of life than rest for their bruised and weary bodies, Wilson assumed
command of the situation. He saw nothing but a straight path to the
girl.

"We must get down to the lake," he said firmly. "Get down there and
find Sorez. If the natives are up in arms, I want to be near the girl.
I'm going to take her out of here. If the others refuse to join us,
we'll take her alone and make a dash for it."

"We oughter get our provisions first," suggested Stubbs.

"No--what strength we have left is for her."

"We'll have twice as much with grub."

"And we'll have less time."

Wilson's jaw was set. To go down the mountain and back would take at
least four hours and leave them even nearer dead than they were at
present. Aside from that, the desire to see the girl had become an
obsession. He was no longer amenable to reason. He felt the power to
dominate. In the last two days he had learned that there are at least
two essential things in life--two things a man has a right to take
where he finds them--love and water. The two lay at his feet now and
he would wait no longer. His heart burned with as hot a thirst as his
throat. Neither Sorez nor gold nor all the brown men in the universe
should balk him of them longer.

Leaning forward he gripped the arm of his comrade with a strength the
latter had not thought within him.

"Old man," he said with a new ring in his voice, "you must follow me
the rest of this journey. I've got down to one thing now--just one
thing. I'm going to find this girl--I'm going to take her into these
two arms--and I'm going to carry her out of here and never let her go.
Do you understand? And there isn't gold enough, nor men enough, nor
heathen images enough in the world to stop me now. We're going back,
Stubbs--the girl and I--we're going back, and God help those who get