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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
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