ly
like the rest of the rocks in Lac Tremblant, out of the uncertain water.
But for half an hour I thought it might as well be non-existent. Stare
as I might I could see no sign of it--and suddenly I all but fell with
blessed shock. I was on it; on the highest end of it, with solid ground
under my feet; solid ground and safety, breath and rest. I yelled to
Paulette, "Jump to me!" and she jumped. That was all there was to it,
except a man and a girl, panting, staggering, clinging together, till
sense came to them, and they dropped flat in the snow.

I said sense, but I don't know that I had any. I lay there staring at
Paulette and her long bronze hair that had come down as she ran, till it
was like a mantle over her and the snow round her. I had never thought
women had hair like that. I cried out, "My God, Paulette, why did you
come?"

I may have sounded angry. I was, as a man always is angry when he has
dragged a woman into his danger. Paulette panted without looking at me.
"I--had to! The tunnel--caved in!"

"I told you to get out of it!" I sat up where I had flung myself down
and stared at her. She sat up, too, both of us crimson-faced and
dishevelled. But neither of us thought of that. I stormed like a fool.
"What possessed you to stay in the tunnel--or to follow me? I told you
to jump for the cave!"

"Well, I didn't!" Paulette stiffened as if she froze. "I hadn't time. I
would have had to cross the tunnel. And I hadn't _time_ to do anything
but jump to you and Collins before your stuff blew up. I'd just got on
your shelf when it went off, and it stunned me till I had just sense
enough left to lie still and hold on. But afterwards, when I saw what
you were going to do, I put on the snowshoes you'd left by the tunnel
entrance and came after you. I'm sorry I did, now!"

"But Collins----" I looked blankly across the two miles of quivering
death trap we still had to cross before we gained what safety there
might be in the Halfway shore and the neighborhood of Macartney's
picket, and my thoughts were not of Collins--"Why, in heaven's name,
didn't Collins have sense enough to lug you back into his cave with him
and Charliet, instead of letting you take a chance like this?"

"Collins couldn't get back himself," Paulette retorted, as if I were
unbearably stupid. "Nobody could get back! I told you the tunnel _caved
in_, till it was solid between us and the others. Collins saw I had to
follow you. In two more minutes Di