d to
the skin, hungry and forlorn, he and the woman who was to him the very
desire of life, had gone through the peril of deep waters. Merefleet was
beginning to wonder why they had thus escaped. It seemed to him but a
needless prolonging of an agony already long drawn out.

Nevertheless there was nothing of despair in his face as he stooped over
the girl who was crouching at his feet.

"Glad you have been able to sleep," he said gently. "Don't get up! There
is no necessity if you are fairly comfortable."

She smiled up at him with the ready confidence of a child and raised
herself a little.

"Still watching, Big Bear?" she said.

"Yes," said Merefleet.

His tone told her that he had seen nothing. She lay still for a few
moments, then slowly turned her face towards the east. A deep pink glow
was rising in the sky. There was a rosy dusk on the sea about them.

"My!" said Mab in a soft whisper. "Isn't that lovely?"

Merefleet said nothing. He was watching her beautiful face with a great
hunger in his heart.

Mab was also silent for a while. Presently she turned her face up to his.

"The Gate of Heaven," she said in a whisper. "Isn't it fine?"

He did not speak.

She lifted a hand that felt like an icicle and slipped it into his.

"I guess we shall do this journey together, Big Bear," she said. "I'm
real sorry I made you come if you didn't want to."

"You needn't be sorry," said Merefleet, with a huskiness he could not
have accounted for.

"No?" she said, with a curious little thrill in her voice. "It's real
handsome of you, Big Bear. Because--you know--I ought to have died more
than a year ago. But you are different. You have your life to live."

Merefleet's hand closed tightly upon hers.

"Don't talk like that, child!" he said. "Heaven knows your life is worth
more than mine."

Mab leant her elbow on his knee and gazed thoughtfully over the far
expanse of water. Merefleet knew that she was faint and exhausted,
though she uttered no complaint.

"Shall I tell you a secret, Big Bear?" she said, in the hushed tone of
one on the threshold of a sacred place. "I ended my life long ago. I was
very miserable and Death came and offered me refuge. And it was such a
safe hiding-place. I knew no one would look for me there. Only lately I
have come to see that what I did was wicked. I think you helped to make
me see, Big Bear. You're so honest. And then a dreadful thing happened.
Have you ever spoilt anyone's l