wn surgical case
from the sheriff and watched him stoop and gather the tall form of his
friend into his arms. Then going the way he indicated, straight across
the tiny flat, she lighted the way. She heard the wounded man groan
once; then, his teeth set to guard his lips, Brocky was silent.

After a dozen steps she came to a steep-sided, narrow chasm giving
passageway not six feet wide which twisted this way and that before her.

"Look out," called Norton sharply. "Watch where you step now. Go
slow."

Virginia swinging her lantern up shoulder-high, looking ahead, grew
instantly stock-still, a shiver tingling along her spine. The narrow
defile through which she had passed had led out of the ring of peaks
and now abruptly debouched into nothingness. As she had turned with
the twisting passageway, expecting to see another wall of rock before
her, she saw instead the sky filled with stars. She stood almost at
the edge of a sheer precipice.

"Throw the light to the left now," commanded Norton. "See what looks
like the entrance to a cave? We go in there."

She walked on, moving slowly, warily, a little faint from the one
startled view before her, her body tight pressed to the rocks upon the
left, her feet only a pace from the edge of the cliff. Now she saw the
mouth of the cave, a black ragged hole just above a flat rock which
thrust itself outward so that it seemed hanging, balanced insecurely,
over the abyss. By the pale rays of the lantern she saw the fairly
smooth, gently sloping floor of the cavern; then, stooping, she passed
in, turned, and held the light for Norton.

He came on steadily, bearing his burden lightly. Still holding the
lantern for him, turning as he came closer, she saw that the cave was
lofty and wide, that it ran farther back into the mountain than her
lantern's rays could follow.

"Back there," said Norton, "you'll find blankets. I'll hold him while
you spread some out for him."

She hurried toward the farther end of the cave, came to a tumble of
blankets against the wall, dragged out two or three, spreading them
quickly. And then, while Norton was stooping to lay Brocky's limp form
down, she busied herself with her case.

"He has fainted," she said quickly. "I'd like to examine the wound
before he is conscious; it's going to hurt him. Pour me some water
into any sort of basin or cup or anything else you've got here. Then
stand by to help me if I need you. . . . Hold the lan