ight beyond. The next line of clouds was dark and
threatening and suddenly poured rain. Slowly but surely the horses
picked their way up the mountain-side through the storm and suddenly
walked out into the sunlight again; they looked down on the smooth flat
surface of the clouds through which they had passed.

"Glorious!" Stuart cried.

"We didn't see this when we came before, you remember," she answered.
"It rained all the way up."

"Yes, it rains up here almost every day in the year, but the guide says
we're going to get a view of six states to-morrow."

It was dusk when the party reached the summit. The horses were loosened
to graze in the open field and the guides hurried to build a fire in
front of the cave made by a projecting ledge of rock beneath which the
party was to sleep.

The bed of balsam boughs was too sharp a contrast to Nan's
million-dollar-room to permit Stuart much sleep. Besides the youngsters
were giggling and laughing and joking most of the night. Only a big log
marked the partition wall between the men's and women's side of the
cave. The space was so limited it was necessary to sleep close
together. The girls and boys never grew tired cracking silly jokes
about the magnificence of their sleeping quarters. In vain Nan begged
for quiet. It was three o'clock before they were still at last and she
fell into a deep sleep.

Stuart rose, sat before the log fire and watched the regular rise and
fall of her bosom as she slept like a child. On a distant mountain-side
he heard the howl of a lonely wolf. Sixteen years ago the mountains
were full of them and they came quite close. He was reminded of the
narrowing strip of the savage world, fast disappearing before the march
of civilization.

"I wonder if we'll ever conquer the last jungle--the heart of man?" he
mused. "Somehow I have my doubts, and yet the faith never dies."

Again he looked at the sleeping woman and a wave of fierce mad
rebellion swept his heart. Somewhere inside of him he heard the lonely
cry of another wolf.

"She's mine--mine! Nature gave her to me in the morning of life--I was
a fool. I should have taken her by force, if need be, and she would
have thanked me in after years. She has complied with the conventions
of Society and trampled the highest law of Life. Why not smash
convention now at the call of that law?"

Again the wolf howled in the distant darkness and it seemed the echo of
his own mad cry. He waked from his rever