ays off. Y' see, Caesar has a heap o' sense, an' his saddle-bags are
loaded down with a heap o' good food. An' you're needin' that--same as
me."

CHAPTER XXXIX

LOVE'S VICTORY

The rightness of Buck's conjecture was proved before evening, but not
without long and painful effort. Joan was utterly weary, and the man
was reduced to such weakness and disability as, in all his life, he
had never known.

But they faced their task with the knowledge that with every moment of
delay in procuring food their chances of escape from that land of ruin
were lessening. With food, and, consequently, with Buck's horse,
safety would be practically assured. They would then, too, be able to
prosecute a search for the man they both had learned to love so well.

With nightfall their hopes were realized, but only at a terrible cost
to the man. So great had become his weakness and suffering that it was
Joan who was forced to make provision for the night.

Both horses were grazing together with an unconcern that was truly
equine. Nor, when reviewed, was their escape the miracle it appeared.
At the height of the storm they had been left on the farthest confines
of the plateau of Devil's Hill, where no fire would reach them, and at
a considerable distance from the lake. Their native terror of fire
would have held them there in a state bordering on paralysis. In all
probability no power on earth could have induced them to stir from the
spot where they had been left, until the drenching rain had blotted
out the furnace raging below. This had been Buck's thought. Then,
perhaps, laboring under a fear of the quakings caused by the
subterranean fires of the hill, and their hungry stomachs crying out
for food, they had left the dreaded hill in quest of the pastures they
craved.

The well-stocked saddle-bags, which Buck's forethought had filled for
the long trail, now provided these lonely wanderers in the wilderness
with the food they needed, the saddle-blankets and the saddles
furnished their open-air couches, and the horses, well, the horses
were there to afford them escape when the time came, and, in the
meantime, could be left to recover from the effects of the storm and
stress through which they, too, had passed.

With the following dawn Buck's improvement was wonderful, and Joan
awoke from a deep, night-long slumber, refreshed and hopeful. An
overhauling of their supplies showed them sufficient food, used
sparingly, to last a wee