espaired of overtaking the moccasined savage. But
at the watercourse the strange creature stopped dead; and waited for him
to come up.

"Go back to your white woman!" she cried stormily. "If you 'urt him, I
pull her bandage off, and beat her arm till she die of pain!"

XVIII

MABYN MAROONED

When Natalie awoke, it was a gray and haggard Garth she saw through the
raised flaps of her tent. His arms, folded on his knees, bore up his
chin; and he stared before him, still pursuing the narrow round of his
troublous thoughts. He was the gainer for his excursion, by valuable
information--but he was no nearer the solution of it all.

Natalie partly raised herself on her good arm. "My poor Garth!" she said
softly. "How very tired you are!"

His weary eyes lighted up. "I'm all right," he cried. "And how are you?"

"Splendid!" she said, matching his tone--while her face was drawn with
pain. "Come in," she added softly.

He sat a little diffidently on the ground beside her; Natalie's
room--though its walls were of canvas--was a sacred place to him when
she was in it.

"Look at me!" she commanded.

He turned his grave, smiling eyes down on her. In spite of difficulties,
dangers and weariness, he had to smile when he looked at her; he loved
her so! His eyes were full of it.

Natalie's eyes fell; her hand crept into his. "You may tell me to-day,"
she whispered.

He understood. "Oh, my Natalie!" he murmured deeply. "I love you! It
breaks my heart to see you suffer!"

She caught up his hand, and pressed it to her cheek. "I am cured!" she
whispered with a lift in her voice.

"There is something I want you to do for me," she said presently.

"Anything in the world!" he cried.

"No!" she said. "This is only a little thing--but you mustn't laugh!"

He immediately smiled.

"I want to feel, for a moment, that I have helped you too," she
whispered. "Put your head down on my good shoulder."

He flung himself down beside her, and laid his head where she bid. Her
breath was warm on his cheek. He slipped his over-heavy burden, and
glided into Paradise for awhile.

"My brave, brave Garth," she whispered in his ear. "All my heart is
yours! I thought about this last night--every time I woke. I thought we
might steal one such moment. I thought, what if something happened to
you, or to me, and we had never known it!"

She tried to tempt him to sleep a while, but Garth, fearful of tiring
her, and with his responsibilit