revived the strength of the tough little cow-pony, and he
drove on at a gallop toward the twinkling lights of Morgantown. There
was a new consciousness about Pierre as if he had changed his whole
nature with his clothes. The sober sense of duty which had kept him in
awe all his life like a lifted finger, was almost gone, and in its
place was a joyous freedom.

For the first time he faintly realized what an existence other than
that of a priest might be. Now for a brief moment he could forget the
part of the subdued novice and become merely a man with nothing about
him to distinguish him from other men, nothing to make heads turn at
his approach and raise whispers as he passed.

It was a game, but he rejoiced in it as a girl does in her first
masquerade. To-morrow he must be grave and sober-footed and an example
to other men; to-night he could frolic as he pleased. The good Father
Victor would hear and frown, perhaps, but remembering the purpose for
which the thing was done he would forgive.

So Pierre le Rouge tossed back his head and laughed up to the frosty
stars. The loose sleeves and the skirts of the robe no longer
entangled his limbs. He threw up his arms and shouted. A hillside
caught the sound and echoed it back to him with a wonderful clearness,
and up and down the long ravine beat the clatter of the flying hoofs.
The whole world shouted and laughed and rode with him on Morgantown.

If the people in the houses that he passed had known they would have
started up from their chairs and taken rifle and horse and after him on
the trail. But how could they tell from the passing of those ringing
hoofs that Pierre, the novice, was dead, and Red Pierre was born?

So they drowsed on about their comfortable fires, and Pierre drew rein
with a jerk before the largest of Morgantown's saloons. With a hand on
the swinging doors he paused a breathless moment, thinking, doubting,
wondering--and a little cold of heart like the boy who stands on the
bank of the river to take the first plunge in the spring of the year.
He had to set his teeth before he could summon the resolution to throw
open the door. It was done; he stepped inside, and stood blinking in
the sudden rush of light against his face.

It was all bewildering at first; the radiance, the blue tangle of
smoke, the storm of voices. For Muldoon's was packed from door to
door. Coins rang in a steady chorus along the bar, and the crowd
waited three and fo