k of it all. If it weren't for you I'd climb the wall and throw
myself off. That would be easy for me. I'd love to die that way. All my
life I've been high up on the walls. To fall would be nothing!"

"Oh, you mustn't talk like that!"

"Do you love me?" she asked, with a low and deathless sweetness.

"Love you? With all my heart! Nothing can change that!"

"Do you want me--as you used to want the Fay Larkin lost in Surprise
Valley? Do you love me that way? I understand things better than before,
but still--not all. I AM Fay Larkin. I think I must have dreamed of you
all my life. I was glad when you came here. I've been happy lately. I
forgot--till last night. Maybe it needed that to make me see I've loved
you all the time.... And I fought him like a wildcat!... Tell me the
truth. I feel I'm yours. Is that true? If I'm not--I'll not live another
hour. Something holds me up. I am the same.... Do you want me?"

"Yes, Fay Larkin, I want you," replied Shefford, steadily, with his grip
on her arms.

"Then take me away. I don't want to live here another hour."

"Fay, I'll take you. But it can't be done at once. We must plan. I need
help. There are Lassiter and Jane to get out of Surprise Valley. Give
me time, dear--give me time. It'll be a hard job. And we must plan so we
can positively get away. Give me time, Fay."

"Suppose HE comes back?" she queried, with a singular depth of voice.

"We'll have to risk that," replied Shefford, miserably. "But--he won't
come soon."

"He said he would," she flashed.

Shefford seemed to freeze inwardly with her words. Love had made her
a woman and now the woman in her was speaking. She saw the truth as he
could not see it. And the truth was nature. She had been hidden all her
life from the world, from knowledge as he had it, yet when love betrayed
her womanhood to her she acquired all its subtlety.

"If I wait and he DOES come will you keep me from him?" she asked.

"How can I? I'm staking all on the chance of his not coming soon. ...
But, Fay, if he DOES come and I don't give up our secret--how on earth
can I keep you from him?" demanded Shefford.

"If you love me you will do it," she said, as simply as if she were
fate.

"But how?" cried Shefford, almost beside himself.

"You are a man. Any man would save the woman who loves him
from--from--Oh, from a beast!... How would Lassiter do it?"

"Lassiter!"

"YOU CAN KILL HIM!"

It was there, deep and full in her voice, the