the elements.

CHAPTER XXXVI

It seemed to Kate presently, as she ran, that the wind was a friend,
trying to help her. The driving rain on her face cleared her brain. Even
the lightning was a friend, for without it she could not have seen a
foot of her way ahead in the blackness.

Each time it flashed she stared about her, hoping to catch sight of
Jacqueline. Suddenly she lifted up her voice and prayed aloud: "God, if
You are up there, if there really is a You, now's Your chance to prove
it! You hear me, God?" It was more a challenge than a prayer.

She knew that the girl had perhaps twenty minutes' start of her, but she
might yet overtake her, and in this storm Channing might well be late.
She slipped as she started down the ravine, and fell and rolled half
way, bruising herself on tree roots and boulders, the wet grass soaking
her to the skin.--No matter, it lost her no time. She fought her way
through dripping, clinging underbrush to the ruins of the slave-house.
The lightning showed it empty.--Could she have passed Jacqueline somehow
in the darkness? She dared not wait to see, but ran on into the lane
beyond. Nobody was in sight.

"I am too late!" she moaned, wringing her hands. "What shall I do now?"

She was convinced that Channing had already come for Jacqueline. She
started running down the road, as if she might overtake the automobile
on foot.

If she had waited at the cabin for a second lightning flash, she could
not have failed to notice the traveling-bag left by Mag beside the door.
Jacqueline, slipping into one of the stables to escape the first brunt
of the storm, had lingered a moment to say good-by to her friends the
horses; and it was at that moment that her mother passed. Kate had
reached the Ruin first.

But she did not know it. When at the turn of the road she saw the glare
of a headlight, she thought, "He's got her!" She was nearly exhausted by
this time, too dazed to realize that the machine was approaching, not
leaving, Storm. She gripped her rawhide whip and stepped directly into
the path of the automobile.

It swerved violently, and came to a stand not a foot from her.

"Good God, Jacqueline! I almost ran you down," cried Channing. "Quick,
jump in. You must be soaked to the bone, you plucky little darling!"

Quick as thought, Kate pulled open the door of the tonneau and slipped
in behind. His mistake had stimulated her failing wits. Let him think
her Jacqueline as long as p