other."

Gratton heaved himself up with a groan. Gloria did not wait for him, but
began the tedious breaking of a path the few feet to the hole, too
earnest in the endeavour even to note how Gratton came along behind
without suggesting that it was the man's place to break trail. Thus
Gloria came first to the lower cave. She hesitated and listened, her
fancies stimulated by his suggestion of storm-driven animals, and sought
to peer into the dark. She could see nothing; she heard nothing. Nothing
save Gratton's hard breathing close behind her. She got a grip upon
herself and made a step forward, paused, extended her arms to grope for
a wall, and made another step. There was still no sound; she breathed
more freely, assuring herself that save for herself the cavern was
empty. She stumbled over a rock, stopped again and called to Gratton.
Only now was he entering.

"Light a match," she commanded.

"My hands are dead with cold," he muttered. "I don't know if I have a
match. Wait a minute."

He began a slow search. Finally she knew that he had found a match; she
heard it scratch against a rock. Then she heard Gratton curse nervously;
the match had broken and his knuckles had scraped along the rock.

The second match he gave to her. She struck it carefully, cupped the
tiny flame with her hands, and strove to see what lay about her. The
little light gave but poor assistance to her straining eyes; but she did
see that there was a litter of dead limbs about her feet. She began
gathering up some of the smaller branches, groping for others as her
match burned out. Again Gratton searched his pockets; he found more
matches and some scraps of paper. It was Gloria's hands which started
the fire and placed the bits of dry wood upon it. The flames crackled;
the wood caught like tinder; the flickering light retrieved much of the
cavern about them from the utter dark.

"Here I stay," said Gratton. He dropped down and began warming his
shaking hands. A more abjectly miserable specimen of humanity Gloria had
never looked upon. He was jaded, spiritless, cowed.

But he was a human being, and she was no longer alone! Across the empty
desolation he had come to her, one who had lived as she had lived, who
knew another world than this, who could understand what she suffered
because he, too, suffered. There came a space of time, all too brief,
during which her heart sang within her. She was lifted from despair to a
realm bright with hope.