ewise, holding on; she had fastened all the
roses which had been in her belt on her palmetto hat, so that she looked
like a May-queen. Winthrop walked on in advance, leading the horse by
the bridle, and carrying her slippers dangling from his arm by a string,
in the hope, he said, of at least beginning the drying. For some time
Garda amused herself making jests at their plight. But after a while the
uneasy posture in which she was obliged to sit began to tire her; she
begged him to stop and let her rest.

"We shouldn't reach home then until long after dark," he answered. "As
it is, at this rate, it will be very late before we can get there."

"Never mind that; of what consequence is it? I'm _so_ tired!"

He came back, and walking by her side, guiding the horse by the rein, he
told her to put her hand on his shoulder, and steady herself in that
way; this bettered matters a little, and they got over another long slow
mile. The sun had sunk low in the west; his horizontal rays lit up the
barren with a flood of golden light. "My poor slippers are no drier,"
said Garda, lifting the one that hung near her.

"If we had had time we could have made a fire, and dried them with very
little trouble."

"Oh, let us make a fire now! I love to make a fire in the woods. You
could get plenty of dry cones and twigs and it wouldn't take fifteen
minutes; then, if they were once dry, I could walk, you know."

"Your fifteen minutes would be an hour at least, and that is an hour of
daylight very precious to us just now. Besides, I am afraid I doubt your
walking powers."

"Yes," answered Garda, with frankness; "I hate to walk."

"Yet you can run," he suggested, referring to her escapade on Patricio
beach.

Garda took up this memory, and was merry over it for some time. Then,
growing weary again, she told him despotically that he must stop. "I
cannot bear this position and jolting a moment longer, with my feet
fettered in this way," she said, vehemently. "You couldn't either."

He turned; though she was smiling, he saw that she had grown pale. "I
shall have to humor you. But I give you fifteen minutes only." He lifted
her down, and mounting the horse, rode off to a distance, first in one
direction, then in another, hoping to discover some one whom he could
send in to Gracias for a carriage or wagon. But the wide barren, growing
rapidly dusky, remained empty and still; there was no moving thing in
sight.

When he came back he found t