er with a great fear. What
had happened? Had some one come to harm them, and was he pleading for
her life? Strange to say it never entered her head to doubt his loyalty,
stranger though he was. Her only feeling was that he might have been
overpowered in his sleep, and be even now in need of help himself. What
could she do?

After the first instant of frozen horror she was on the alert. He had
saved her, she must help him. She could not hear any other voice than
his. Probably the enemy spoke in whispers, but she knew that she must go
at once and find out what was the matter. The distance from her pleasant
couch beside the fire was but a few steps, yet it seemed to her
frightened heart and trembling limbs, as she crept softly over towards
the sage-brush, that it was miles.

At last she was close to the bush, could part it with her cold hand and
look into the little shelter.

There was a faint light in the east beyond the mountains that showed the
coming dawn, and silhouetted against this she saw the figure of her
rescuer, dropped upon one knee, his elbow on the other and his face
bowed in his hand. She could hear his words distinctly now, but there
was no man else present, though she searched the darkness carefully.

"I found her lost out here in the wilderness," he was saying in low,
earnest tones, "so beautiful, so dear! But I know she cannot be for me.
Her life has been all luxury and I would not be a man to ask her to
share the desert! I know too that she is not fitted for the work. I know
it would be all wrong, and I must not wish it, but I love her, though I
may not tell her so! I must be resolute and strong, and not show her
what I feel. I must face my Gethsemane, for this girl is as dear to me
as my own soul! God bless and guard her, for I may not."

The girl had stood rooted to the spot unable to move as the low voice
went on with its revelation, but when the plea for a blessing upon her
came with all the mighty longing of a soul who loved absorbingly, it was
as if she were unable to bear it, and she turned and fled silently back
to her couch, creeping under the canvas, thrilled, frightened, shamed
and glad all in one. She closed her eyes and the swift tears of joy
came. He loved her! He loved her! How the thought thrilled her. How her
own heart leaped up to meet his love. The fact of it was all she could
contain for the time and it filled her with an ecstasy such as she had
never known before. She opened he