truggle. There were only
two slain--the driver and one of Red Kimball's companions. Either
Kimball and his other comrade had escaped, or had been captured. If
any of the attacking party had fallen, the bodies had been borne away.
Blood-stains indicated that more than two had been shot. From that
ghastly sight it was a relief to find himself once more enclosed by the
coach walls with Lahoma so peacefully sleeping.

Once he fell into a doze from which he was startled by the impression
that soft noises, not of wind or rain, were creeping over the earth.
He sat erect with the confused fancy that wolves were slinking among
the wheels, were glaring up at the windows, were dragging away the
corpses. The sudden movement of his hand as it grasped his pistol
awoke Lahoma.

She opened her eyes wide, but did not lift her cheek from the arm that
lay along the cushion. "There you are," she said, "just as I was
dreaming."

He pretended not to be uneasy, but his ears strained to catch the
meaning of those mysterious movements of the night. Her voice cut
across the vague murmur of the open plain:

"You only came once!"

Although her eyes were wide, she was apparently but half-awake; not a
muscle moved as she looked into his face. "I thought," she murmured,
"it was on account of Annabel."

"I went away because I loved you," he answered softly. "I promised
Brick I'd go if I felt myself caring--and nobody could help caring for
you. That's why I left the country. Just as soon as we laughed
together--it happened. That's why I didn't come again."

"Yes," sighed Lahoma, as if it was not so hard to understand, now.

"And that's why I've come back," he added. "Because I've kept on
loving you."

"Yes," she sighed again. She closed her eyes and seemed to fall
asleep. Perhaps it was a sort of knowing sleep that lost most of the
world but clung tenaciously to a few ideas. The noises of the night
died away. Presently he heard her murmur as a little smile crept about
the parted lips, "The cove's pretty big ... there's more room than I
thought."

When she was wide awake, daylight had slipped through the windows. "Oh,
Wilfred!" she exclaimed, sitting suddenly erect, and putting her hands
to her head mechanically. "Is--are we all right?"

"All right," said the young man cheerily. "There's a good deal of snow
on the ground but it was blown off the trail for the most part. Some
friends have provided us with the means of goi