ral impulses to friendliness?

His eyes released her presently, but not before she read in them the
feelings that had softened them as they gazed into hers. They mirrored
his poignant pleasure at the delight of her sweet slenderness so close
to him, his perilous joy at the intimacy fate had thrust upon them.
Shyly her lids fell to the flushed cheeks.

"Breakfast is ready," she added self-consciously, her girlish innocence
startled like a fawn of the forest at the hunter's approach.

For whereas she had been blind now she saw in part. Some flash of
clairvoyance had laid bare a glimpse of his heart and her own to her.
Without misunderstanding the perfect respect for her which he felt, she
knew the turbid banked emotions which this dammed. Her heart seemed to
beat in her bosom like an imprisoned dove.

It was his voice, calm and resonant with strength, that brought her to
earth again.

"And I am ready for it, lieutenant. Right about face. Forward--march!"

After breakfast they went out and tramped together the little path of
hard-trodden snow in front of the house. She broached the prospect of a
rescue or the chances of escape.

"We shall soon be out of food, and, anyhow, we can't stay here all
winter," she suggested with a tremulous little laugh.

"You are naturally very tired of it already," he hazarded.

"It has been the experience of my life. I shall fence it off from all
the days that have passed and all that are to come," she made answer
vividly.

Their eyes met, but only for an instant.

"I am glad," he said quietly.

He began, then, to tell her what he must do, but at the first word of
it she broke out in protest.

"No--no--no! We shall stay together. If you go I am going, too."

"I wish you could, but it is not possible. You could never get there.
The snow is too soft and heavy for wading and not firm enough to bear
your weight."

"But you will have to wade."

"I am stronger than you, lieutenant."

"I know, but----" She broke down and confessed her terror. "Would you
leave me here--alone--with all this snow Oh, I couldn't stay--I
couldn't."

"It's the only way," he said steadily. Every fiber in him rebelled at
leaving her here to face peril alone, but his reason overrode the
desire and rebellion that were hot within him. He must think first of
her ultimate safety, and this lay in getting her away from here at the
first chance.

Tears splashed down from the big eyes. "I didn't think you w