a member of the Sunrise Camp Fire
group.

Therefore in a measure Gerry realized how poor a return she would be
offering should she slip away with Felipe without confessing her
intention to Mrs. Burton.

Not once, but perhaps a dozen times, her mind was almost made up to find
Mrs. Burton and tell her everything. For Gerry believed that by some
method she could induce her friend to understand how deeply she cared
for Felipe. There would be the argument of youth against their immediate
marriage; but youth is not always _only_ a question of the number of
years one has lived, and Gerry felt convinced that she suddenly had
grown old.

Nevertheless there was always this stumbling block. How could she
acknowledge her own intention and Felipe's without betraying Felipe's
secret? To divulge the fact that he was planning to escape military
service by crossing over the border into Mexico and hiding there was out
of the question.

Undoubtedly Gerry should have more fully appreciated the enormity of
Felipe's purpose, his selfishness and disloyalty. Strange that she
should expect to find happiness with a man who wished to begin their
life together by an act of deception and cowardice! Nevertheless, by
this time one must have learned to understand Gerry's disposition
sufficiently well to accept the fact that she did not _fully_
understand, so completely was she under Felipe's influence. Yet Felipe
must not be allowed to bear the entire burden of their wrong doing.
Certainly Gerry was not marrying Felipe for his sake only, but also for
the happiness and the ease which she believed the future would insure
her.

Notwithstanding this, since life is seldom guided by one clear motive,
but by many mixed ones, Gerry was also ardently and sincerely in love.

Her failure to grasp the extent of the danger she and Felipe were facing
and the possible injury to her own reputation was due to three causes.
The first of these was sheer stupidity, the second an actual lack of
education and the third Gerry's conviction that this was her solitary
chance for saving Felipe from the difficulties and dangers of a
soldier's life and at the same time securing him for herself.

In the end, as one might have guessed, Gerry Williams made no
confession.

Instead, in the hours when she had remained alone in her sleeping tent,
she had packed a few possessions in her satchel, hiding the bag under
her bed and wondering at the same time how she would ever man