y life!" she
cried emphatically. "I'll go with you."

So again, and as cautious as they had been last night, they made their
way down the steep slope and drank in the starlight. They tarried a
little by the trickle of water, heeding the silence, breathing deep of
the soft night, lifting their eyes to the stars. The world seemed
young and sweet about them, clean and tender, a place of infinite peace
and kindness rather than of a pursuing hate. They stood close
together; their shoulders brushed companionably. Together they
hearkened to a tiny voice thrilling through the emptiness, the
monotonous vibrating cadences of some happy insect. The heat of the
day had passed with the day, the perfect hour had come. It was one of
those moments which Jim Kendric found to his liking. Many such still
hours had he known under many skies and out of the night had always
come something vague and mighty to speak to something no less mighty
which lay within his soul. But always before, when he drank the fill
of a time like this, he had been alone. He had thought that a man must
be alone to know the ineffable content of the solitudes. Tonight he
was not alone. And yet more perfect than those other hours in other
lands was this hour slipping by now as the tiny voice out yonder
slipped through the silence without shattering it. Certain words of
his own little song crept into his mind.

"Where it's only you
And the mountainside."

That "you" had always been just Jim Kendric. After this, if ever again
he sang it, the "you" would be Betty.

"Shall we go back?" he asked quietly.

He saw Betty start. Her eyes came back from the stars and sought his.
He could see them only dimly in the shadow of her hair, but he knew
they were shining with the gush of her own night-thoughts. They
scooped up their water then and went back up the mountain. Their fire
was almost down and they did not replenish it. They went to their beds
of boughs and lay down in silence. Presently Jim said "Good night."
And Betty, the hush of the outside in her voice as she answered, said
softly "Good night."

They were astir before dawn. Fresh water must be brought before
daylight brightened in the canons. This time Jim went alone to the
creek and when he got back Betty had their fire blazing. Betty made
the breakfast, insisting on having her free unhampered way with it.

"There are some things I can do," said Betty, "and a great many I
can't.