was in his heart.

But she did not resent it, and nothing was further from her mind than
imputing any share in this loss to him.

Some women's hearts are so wonderfully constituted that the greater the
demands upon them the more they are prepared to give. At times they give
and give beyond the bounds of reason, and yet amazingly retain their
faith and hope in the recipients of their gifts.

But that has nothing to do with our story. Except this--that these
various demands on Nance's fortitude, incurred by her love for Stephen
Gard, far from weakening her love only made it the stronger. As that
love came more and more between her and her old surroundings, and
exacted from her sacrifice after sacrifice, the more she clung to it,
and looked to it, and let the past go. The partial ostracism brought
upon her by Gard's outspoken declaration of their mutual feeling--even
this final offering of her dearly-loved brother--these only bound her
heart to him the tighter.

"Nance dear!" he said at last, when she had got control of herself
again. "Is it not possible to hope? He was so good a swimmer. Maybe he
found the Race too strong and was carried away by it. He may have been
picked up, and will come back as soon as he is able."

"No," she said, with gloomy decision. "He is dead. I feared for him, for
I had been to look at the Race just before sundown, and it looked
terribly strong. But he would go--"

"Why didn't he get a boat?"

"Ah, mon Gyu!" and she started up wildly. "I was forgetting. I was
thinking only of myself and Bernel. There isn't a boat left alive
outside the Creux, and he couldn't get one there without them knowing.
But"--in quick excitement now, to make up for lost time--"they have seen
you here, and they may come to-night--Achochre that I am! They may be
here! Come quickly! Your gun!" and she was all on the quiver to be gone.

Gard stooped and pulled out the gun from its hiding-place inside the
shelter.

"Is it loaded?" she asked sharply.

"Yes. I cleaned it to-day."

"Take your charges with you, and do you hasten back to the place we
landed the first night. You know?"

"I know. And you?"

"I will go to the other landing-place. But they are not likely to come
there."

"And if they do?"

"I will manage them," and she slipped into the darkness with the big
cloak about her.

Gard crept along the slope, and found a roost above the landing-place.

His brain was in a whirl. Bernel had tried to cros