d boy romance was a summer dream. One day he
dreamed truer. So did the beautiful Miss Carryl.... And the pretty game
I invented for him he taught in turn to his fiancee.... Well, he died in
The Valley.... And I have just given his fiancee her passport. It would
be very kind of you to station a guard at the Carryl place for its
protection. Would you mind giving the order, sir?... _He_ is buried
there."

The Colonel, hands clasped behind him, walked to the tent door.

"Yes," he said, "I'll give the order."

A few moments later the drums of the Bucktails began beating the
assembly.

VII

THE PASS

Her map, which at headquarters was supposed to be reliable, had grossly
misled her; the road bore east instead of north, dwindling, as she
advanced, to a rocky path among the foothills. She had taken the wrong
turn at the forks; there was nothing to direct her any farther--no
landmarks except the general trend of the watercourse, and the dull
cinders of sunset fading to ashes in the west.

It was impossible now to turn back; Carrick's flying column must be
very close on her heels by this time--somewhere yonder in the dusk,
paralleling her own course, with only a dark curtain of forest
intervening.

So all that evening, and far into the starlit night, she struggled
doggedly forward, leading her lamed horse over the mountain, dragging
him through laurel thickets, tangles of azalea and rhododendron,
thrashing across the swift mountain streams that tumbled out of starry,
pine-clad heights, foaming athwart her trail with the rushing sound of
forest winds.

For a while the clear radiance of the stars lighted the looming
mountains; but when wastes of naked rock gave place to ragged woods,
lakes and pits of darkness spread suddenly before her; every gully,
every ravine brimmed level with treacherous shadows, masking the sheer
fall of rock plunging downward into fathomless depths.

Again and again, as she skirted the unseen edges of destruction, chill
winds from unsuspected deeps halted her; she dared not light the
lantern, dared not halt, dared not even hesitate. And so, fighting down
terror, she toiled on, dragging her disabled horse, until, just before
dawn, the exhausted creature refused to stir another foot.

Desperate, breathless, trembling on the verge of exhaustion, with the
last remnants of nervous strength she stripped saddle and bridle from
the animal; then her nerves gave way and she buried her face agai