. John Aldous knew that there was some deep significance in her visit
to the grave under the Saw Tooth Mountain, and that from the beginning she
had been fighting under a tremendous mental and physical strain. He had
expected this day would be a terrible day for her; he had seen her efforts
to strengthen herself for the approaching crisis that morning. He believed
that as they drew nearer to their journey's end her suspense and
uneasiness, the fear which she was trying to keep from him, would, in spite
of her, become more and more evident. For these reasons the change which he
saw in her was not only delightfully unexpected but deeply puzzling. She
seemed to be under the influence of some new and absorbing excitement. Her
cheeks were flushed. There was a different poise to her head; in her voice,
too, there was a note which he had not noticed before.

It struck him, all at once, that this was a new Joanne--a Joanne who, at
least for a brief spell, had broken the bondage of oppression and fear that
had fettered her. In the narrow trail up the mountain he rode behind her,
and in this he found a pleasure even greater than when he rode at her
side. Only when her face was turned from him did he dare surrender himself
at all to the emotions which had transformed his soul. From behind he could
look at her, and worship without fear of discovery. Every movement of her
slender, graceful body gave him a new and exquisite thrill; every dancing
light and every darkening shadow in her shimmering hair added to the joy
that no fear or apprehension could overwhelm within him now. Only in those
wonderful moments, when her presence was so near, and yet her eyes did not
see him, could he submerge himself completely in the thought of what she
had become to him and of what she meant to him.

During the first hour of their climb over the break that led into the
valley beyond they had but little opportunity for conversation. The trail
was an abandoned Indian path, narrow, and in places extremely steep. Twice
Aldous helped Joanne from her horse that she might travel afoot over places
which he considered dangerous. When he assisted her in the saddle again,
after a stiff ascent of a hundred yards, she was panting from her exertion,
and he felt the sweet thrill of her breath in his face. For a space his
happiness obliterated all thoughts of other things. It was MacDonald who
brought them back.

They had reached the summit of the break, and through