?"

She was pale, eloquent, grave. But he was low-voiced, gay, intense.

"Dear Neale--what--what can I do?... I have nothing... so big a thing as
you did today!"

"Child! You can kiss me."

Allie's sweet gravity changed. She smiled. "I shore can, as Larry used
to say. That's my privilege. But you spoke of a reward. My kisses--they
are yours--and as many as the--the grains of sand out there. But they
are not reward."

"No?... Listen. For just one kiss--if I had to earn it so--I would dig
that roadbed out there, carry every tie and rail with my bare hands,
drive every spike--"

"Neale, you talk like a boy. Something, indeed, has gone to your head."

"Yes, indeed, it has. It's your face--In the moonlight."

She hid her blushes for a moment on his breast.

"I--I want to be serious," she whispered. "I want to thank God for my
good fortune. To think of you and your work!... The future! And you--you
only want kisses."

"Well, since your future must be largely made up of kisses, suppose you
begin your work--right now."

"Oh, you're teasing! Yet when you ask of me--whatever you ask--I have
no mind--no will. Something drags at me... I feel it now--as I used
to--when you made me wade the brook."

"Oh! That's my sweetest memory of you. How it haunted me!"

They stood silent for a while. Out in the moon--blanched space the
sentries trod monotonously. A coyote yelped, sharp and wild. The wind
moaned low. Suddenly Neale shook himself, as if awakening.

"Allie, it grows late. We must say good night... Today has been blessed.
I am grateful to the depths of my heart... But I won't let you go--until
my reward--"

She raised her face, white and noble in the moonlight.

19

Neale slept in a tent, and when he was suddenly awakened it was bright
daylight. His ears vibrated to a piercing blast. For an instant he could
not distinguish the sound. But when it ceased he knew it had been a
ringing bugle-call. Following that came the voices and movements of
excited troopers.

He rolled from his blankets to get into boots and coat and rush out. The
troopers appeared all around him in hurried orderly action. Neale asked
a soldier what was up.

"Redskins, b'gorra--before brikfast!" was the disgusted reply.

Neale thought of Allie and his heart contracted. A swift glance on all
sides, however, failed to see any evidence of attack on the camp.
He espied General Lodge and Colonel Dillon among a group before the
engineers'