told himself, or at least
not for many days--or weeks; and if he did come, it would be to war in a
legal way, and not with murder.

Yet his uneasiness did not leave him. As the hours passed and the
afternoon lengthened, the invisible something urged him more strongly to
take the trail beyond the cottonwoods, with Mary Standish at his side.
Twice he saw her between noon and five o'clock, and by that time his
writing was done. He looked at his guns carefully. He saw that his
favorite rifle and automatic were working smoothly, and he called
himself a fool for filling his ammunition vest with an extravagant
number of cartridges. He even carried an amount of this ammunition and
two of his extra guns to Sokwenna's cabin, with the thought that it was
this cabin on the edge of the ravine which was best fitted for defense
in the event of necessity. Possibly Stampede might have use for it, and
for the guns, if Graham should come after he and Mary were well on their
way to Nome.

After supper, when the sun was throwing long shadows from the edge of
the horizon, Alan came from a final survey of his cabin and the food
which Wegaruk had prepared for his pack, and found Mary at the edge of
the ravine, watching the twilight gathering where the coulee ran
narrower and deeper between the distant breasts of the tundra.

"I am going to leave you for a little while," he said. "But Sokwenna has
returned, and you will not be alone."

"Where are you going?"

"As far as the cottonwoods, I think."

"Then I am going with you."

"I expect to walk very fast."

"Not faster than I, Alan."

"But I want to make sure the country is clear in that direction before
twilight shuts out the distances."

"I will help you." Her hand crept into his. "I am going with you, Alan,"
she repeated.

"Yes, I--think you are," he laughed joyously, and suddenly he bent his
head and pressed her hand to his lips, and in that way, with her hand in
his, they set out over the trail which they had not traveled together
since the day he had come from Nome.

There was a warm glow in her face, and something beautifully soft and
sweet in her eyes which she did not try to keep away from him. It made
him forget the cottonwoods and the plains beyond, and his caution, and
Sokwenna's advice to guard carefully against the hiding-places of Ghost
Kloof and the country beyond.

"I have been thinking a great deal today," she was saying, "because you
have left me so much alo