a safe return
to camp for a sight of Betty, for the opportunity to throw himself down
on a bed of boughs and rest.

Though it was dark when he started to climb the steep toward camp he
relaxed nothing of his guarded precautions. Urged by impatience as he
was, eager to know if all was well with Betty, his uneasiness for her
growing with every step toward her, he crawled slowly and silently
through bushes and among boulders, he stopped frequently and listened,
he forced himself to a round about way rather than take the direct.
All this in spite of his keen realization that for Betty the time must
be dragging even as it dragged for him. Betty hungry, frightened and
lonely was, above all, uncertain.

But at last he came to the opening in the rocks. He squeezed through,
his heart suddenly heavy within him as the stillness of the place smote
him like a positive assurance that Betty was gone. He went on, his
teeth set hard. If Betty were gone, by high heaven, there would be a
rendering of accounts! And then, even before the first glimmer of her
little fire reached him, he heard her glad cry. She came running to
meet him, her two hands out, groping for his. And he dropped rifle and
provision bag and in the half dark his hands found hers and gripped
hard in mighty rejoicing.

"Thank God!" said Betty.

And Jim Kendric's words were like a deep, fervent echo: "Thank God."

CHAPTER XX

IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND
MORE THAN ONE AVENUE IS OPENED

In the light of Betty's fire Jim hastily poured forth the contents of
his bag and never did a child's eyes at Christmas time shine like
Betty's. She had hungered until she was weak and trembling and now
such articles as Jim displayed were amply sufficient to elicit from her
that little cry of delight. Tortillas and beans, meat and coffee and
sugar and milk--it was a banquet fit for a king and a queen!

"The only thing," cautioned Kendric, "is to go slow. It's a course
dinner, Miss Betty. And first comes a bit of milk."

He ripped open a can with his pocket knife, poured out half of the
thick contents into the silk-water bag and diluted the remainder with
water. Thereafter he watched Betty while she forced herself, at his
bidding, to eat and drink sparingly. And he noted that during his
absence she had been busy working on her wardrobe. Using both the red
garment and the cloak, employing in her task the obsidian knife and
strips of green fi