grew and as she
always fled from it? The thought came to her that such a menace would
follow one day after day; that it would wait and wait; that in the end
it knew its time would come when sleep or exhaustion broke down its
prey's guard. Then it would leap and strike.

Her rifle had grown a heart-breaking weight, until it seemed that it
would drag her arms from their sockets to hold it up; the pack of meat
on her back was like lead.

She wondered if King had missed her; if he were awake and wondering at
her absence. She wondered if he would miss her soon; how soon? At the
first glint of dawn? Would he begin to see, that she was at least, and
at last, trying? Well, she had tried; though she died, still she had
tried. She was cold to the bone; her teeth chattered, her body quaked.
Yet she kept on. She fell; she lay with the tears of exhaustion rolling
down her face; she struggled to get to her feet; she fell again. But
always she rose and always she kept on. And so, in the fulness of time,
after long frightful, hellish hours, Sec.he came to the last terror of the
night.

The new day was bright on the mountain tops when she felt at first a
dull sort of surprise and then a sudden, stimulating gladness, noting
the familiar look of the ridge ahead. Yonder the cave would be. The cave
and King, success and rest. She straightened up a little, brushing her
hand across her straining eyes, making sure that she was right. She
heard the insistent scream behind her, but now she did not heed it, for
in front of her, stock-still in the trail, was a man. It was Benny.

To-night she had thrilled to an ecstasy descending from the stars,
welling up in her own heart, and she had shivered with fear and had
dropped with weariness akin to despair. Now suddenly all emotions were
upgathered into searing anger. Her thought was: "He will take the meat
from me! The meat I have brought for Mark." She grew rigid in her
tracks. She jerked up her rifle in front of her; her tired eyes
hardened. She had gone to the limits of endurance in a labour of love;
she had succeeded; and now she would fight for what she had brought
back.

Then she noted that Benny had not seen her. Though he was in full view
on the ridge, he had had no eyes for her. He was stooping. She saw that
he had a small pack on his back; food, no doubt. On the ground by him
was a second pack, something in a crash sack; Benny was struggling to
lift it to his shoulders. It must be very