t.

Then he ran swiftly beside the wall, as he had seen her run, until he
came to the fissure. It was overgrown with vines and brambles almost
as impenetrable as an abatis, but if she had pierced it in her delicate
crape dress, so could he! He brushed roughly through, and found himself
in a glimmering aisle of pear trees close by the white wall of the
Mission church.

For a moment in that intricate tracing of ebony and ivory made by
the rising moon, he was dazzled, but evidently his irruption into the
orchard had not been as lithe and silent as her own, for a figure in a
parti-colored dress suddenly started into activity, and running from
the wall, began to course through the trees until it became apparently
a part of that involved pattern. Nothing daunted, however, Stephen
Masterton pursued, his speed increased as he recognized the flounces of
Pepita's barred dress, but the young girl had the advantage of knowing
the locality, and could evade her pursuer by unsuspected turns and
doubles.

For some moments this fanciful sylvan chase was kept up in perfect
silence; it might have been a woodland nymph pursued by a wandering
shepherd. Masterton presently saw that she was making toward a tiled
roof that was now visible as projecting over the presidio wall, and
was evidently her goal of refuge. He redoubled his speed; with skillful
audacity and sheer strength of his broad shoulders he broke through a
dense ceanothus hedge which Pepita was swiftly skirting, and suddenly
appeared between her and her house.

With her first cry, the young girl turned and tried to bury herself in
the hedge; but in another stride the circuit preacher was at her side,
and caught her panting figure in his arms.

While he had been running he had swiftly formulated what he should
do and what he should say to her. To his simple appeal for her
companionship and willing ear he would add a brotherly tenderness, that
should invite her trustfulness in him; he would confess his wrong and
ask her forgiveness of his abrupt solicitations; he would propose to
teach her more hymns, they would practice psalmody together; even this
priest, the custodian of her soul, could not object to that; but chiefly
he would thank her: he would tell her how she had pleased him, and this
would lead to more serious and thoughtful converse. All this was in his
mind while he ran, was upon his lips as he caught her and for an instant
she lapsed, exhausted, in his arms. But, al