from Italy. There would be none from the Maloja at this hour."

Helen was actually trembling. Bower drew her a little nearer. He
himself was unnerved, a prey to wilder emotions than she could guess
till later days brought a fuller understanding. It was a mad trick of
fate that threw the girl into his embrace just then, for another
far-flung sheet of fire revealed to her terrified vision the figures
of Spencer and Stampa on the rocks beneath. With brutal candor, the
same flash showed her nestling close to Bower. For some reason, she
shuddered. Though the merciful gloom of the next few seconds restored
her faculties, her face and neck were aflame. She almost felt that she
had been detected in some fault. Her confusion was not lessened by
hearing a muttered curse from her companion. Careless of the stinging
sleet, she leaped down to a broad tier of rock below the plateau of
the hut and cried shrilly:

"Is that really you, Mr. Spencer?"

A more tremendous burst of thunder than any yet experienced dwarfed
all other sounds for an appreciable time. The American scrambled up,
almost at her feet, and stood beside her. Stampa came quick on his
heels, moving with a lightness and accuracy of foothold amazing in one
so lame.

"Just me, Miss Wynton. Sorry if I have frightened you, but our old
friend here was insistent that we should hurry. I have been tracking
you since nine o'clock."

Spencer's words were nonchalantly polite. He even raised his cap,
though the fury of the ice laden blast might well have excused this
formal act of courtesy. Helen was still blushing so painfully that she
became angry with herself, and her voice was hardly under control.
Nevertheless, she managed to say:

"How kind and thoughtful of you! I am all right, as you see. Mr. Bower
and the guide were able to bring me here before the storm broke. We
happened to be standing near the door, watching the lightning. When I
caught a glimpse of you I was so stupidly startled that I screamed and
almost fell into Mr. Bower's arms."

Put in that way, it did not sound so distressing. And Spencer had no
desire to add further difficulties to a situation already awkward.

"Guess you scared me too," he said. "I suppose, now we are at the hut,
Stampa will not object to my waiting five minutes or so before we
start for home."

"Surely you will lunch with us. Everything is set out on the table,
and we have food enough for a regiment."

"You would need it if you rem