ed the Basin and
watch the trail beaten in the deep snow by the passing of many feet,
and brood over the days when she might have won Jack and by the very
closeness of their love have saved him from this. Had she done her
part, Jack would not have lied to her about that trip to Venice; he
would not have dreamed of such a thing. It hurt terribly to think how
close she had been to happiness with Jack and how unthinkingly she had
let it slip from her while she centered her interest upon other things
that held no comfort for her now--now when all she asked of life was
to give her back her son alive.

Men came and went, and answered the heartbreaking question in her big
brown eyes with cheerful words that did not, somehow, cheer. The storm
was over, they told her, and now they would have a better chance. She
mustn't think of what Murphy said--Murphy was an old fool. She
mustn't give up. And even while they talked she knew by their eyes
that they had given up long ago, and only kept up the pretense of
hopeful searching for her sake.

Because the partition was only one thickness of boards she heard them
commenting one night on the grim fact that no smoke had been seen at
Taylor Rock, though many eyes had watched anxiously for the sign. She
listened, and she knew that they were going to give up--knew that they
should have given up long ago but for her. With no fire in the cave
none could live for long in this weather, she heard them muttering.
The cave was drifted full of snow, in the opinion of those who had the
most experience with mountain snows. The lost couple might be in the
cave, but they were not alive. One man said that they were probably
under some fallen tree--and they were many--or buried deep in a gulch
somewhere. Certainly after ten days neither Jack nor Marion nor Mike
could by any possibility be alive in the hills.

Kate was asleep and did not hear. The professor was out there with the
others--probably they thought that Mrs. Singleton Corey was asleep
also, for it was growing late. Her chapped knuckles pressed against
her trembling lips, she listened awhile, until she could bear no
more. How kind they were--these men of Quincy! How they had struggled
to keep alive her courage! She got up, opened the door very quietly,
and went out into the strong, bluish haze of tobacco smoke that
enveloped the men huddled there around the kitchen stove for a last
pipe before they turned in. She stood within the door, like "m