t she was smiling.

When she kissed him she had not hidden her face on his shoulder,--she
had risen a little on her toes, and stood straight and free. In that
moment when he came close to her actual personality, he felt in her the
same expansion that he had noticed at Mrs. Nathanmeyer's. She became
freer and stronger under impulses. When she rose to meet him like that,
he felt her flash into everything that she had ever suggested to him, as
if she filled out her own shadow.

She pushed him away and shot past him out into the rain. "Now for it,
Fred," she called back exultantly. The rain was pouring steadily down
through the dying gray twilight, and muddy streams were spouting and
foaming over the cliff.

Fred caught her and held her back. "Keep behind me, Thea. I don't know
about the path. It may be gone altogether. Can't tell what there is
under this water."

But the path was older than the white man's Arizona. The rush of water
had washed away the dust and stones that lay on the surface, but the
rock skeleton of the Indian trail was there, ready for the foot. Where
the streams poured down through gullies, there was always a cedar or a
PINON to cling to. By wading and slipping and climbing, they got along.
As they neared the head of the canyon, where the path lifted and rose in
steep loops to the surface of the plateau, the climb was more difficult.
The earth above had broken away and washed down over the trail, bringing
rocks and bushes and even young trees with it. The last ghost of
daylight was dying and there was no time to lose. The canyon behind them
was already black.

"We've got to go right through the top of this pine tree, Thea. No time
to hunt a way around. Give me your hand." After they had crashed through
the mass of branches, Fred stopped abruptly. "Gosh, what a hole! Can you
jump it? Wait a minute."

He cleared the washout, slipped on the wet rock at the farther side, and
caught himself just in time to escape a tumble. "If I could only find
something to hold to, I could give you a hand. It's so cursed dark, and
there are no trees here where they're needed. Here's something; it's a
root. It will hold all right." He braced himself on the rock, gripped
the crooked root with one hand and swung himself across toward Thea,
holding out his arm. "Good jump! I must say you don't lose your nerve in
a tight place. Can you keep at it a little longer? We're almost out.
Have to make that next ledge. Put your fo