to the hole in the rock through which the
stars were shining. It seemed impossible that those stars out there
were the same stars which had shone upon her all of her life long. She
could fancy that she had gone to sleep in one world and now had
awakened in another, coming into a far, unknown territory where the
face of the earth was changed, where men were different, where life was
new. And though her body was tired her spirit did not droop. Rather
an old exhilaration was in her blood. She had stepped from an old,
outworn world into a new one, and with a quick stir of the pulses she
told herself that life was good where it was strenuous and that she was
glad that Virginia Page had come to San Juan.

"And now," she mused sleepily when at last she lay down upon heaped-up
pine-needles and drew over her the blanket Norton had brought, "I am
going to sleep in the hang-out of Jim Galloway and the old home of the
cliff-dwellers! Virginia Page, you are a downright lucky girl!"

Whereupon she blew out her lantern, smiled faintly at the stars shining
upon her, sighed wearily and went to sleep.

CHAPTER VIII

JIM GALLOWAY'S GAME

As full consciousness of her surroundings returned slowly to her,
Virginia Page at first thought that she had been awakened by the aroma
of boiling coffee. Then, sitting up, wide awake, she knew that Norton
had come to the doorway of her separate chamber and had called. She
threw off her blanket and got up hastily.

It was still dark. She imagined that she had merely dozed and that
Norton was summoning her because Brocky Lane was worse. A dim glow
shone through the cave entrance, that flickering, uncertain light
eloquent of a camp-fire. As her hands went swiftly and femininely to
her hair, she heard Norton's voice in a laughing remark. Only then she
knew that she had slept three or four hours, that the dawn was near,
that it was time for her to return to San Juan.

"Good morning," she said brightly.

Norton, squatting by the fire, frying-pan in hand, turned and answered
her nod; Brocky Lane, flat on his back with his hands clasped behind
his head, a cigarette in his mouth, twisted a little where he lay, his
eyes eager upon his doctor. Virginia came on into the full light,
striking the pine-needles from her riding-habit.

"Time to eat and ride," said Norton, turning again to his task. "Bacon
and coffee and exercise. Have you rested?"

"Perfectly. And Mr. Lane?"

"Me?" s