uth.

"Not with those little hands," replied the man vehemently. "You just
stand back there and pray while I do the work."

"Those little hands, as you call them, are stronger than you think.
I'm going to work with all my might and help you out. And that won't
keep me from praying either. I guess the cave women used to work and
fight just about as much as the men, and I'm a cave woman now if I
never was before."

Again Drew sought to deter her, but she was determined and he had to
let her have her way. The only concession he could gain was to make
her put on a pair of buckskin gloves that dangled at his belt. They
were woefully large for her shapely hands and at any other time would
have furnished a subject for jesting. But nothing now was further from
their minds than laughter. They were engaged on a grim work of life or
death and both of them knew it.

But though brave, there was a limit to Ruth's physical strength, and
under such strenuous and unaccustomed effort it was not long before
that limit was reached. Drew discerned it coming before Ruth herself
would admit it.

He took her gently but firmly by both wrists and fairly compelled her
to sit down on one of the mounds, where he improvised a seat that
enabled her to rest her back against one side of the cave. Then he
returned to the work with redoubled vigor, tossing the dirt aside as
though he were a tireless steam shovel.

But though Ruth's body was resting, her mind was working actively,
darting hither and thither in an effort to find a way of escape from
their fearful predicament.

"Allen," she said, as he stopped for an instant to rest, "come here and
sit down beside me."

He had never hesitated before at accepting that coveted invitation, but
just now he wondered whether he ought to stop even for an instant. His
herculean efforts had brought him to the very edge of collapse, but he
was feverishly eager to keep on.

"Ought I, Ruth?" he questioned. "Every minute now is precious, you
know."

"I know it," she admitted, "but you'll drop dead from exhaustion if you
don't stop and rest. You must rest."

The gentle tyrant had her way and Drew yielded. He sat down beside
her, his chest contracting and expanding under the stress of his
labored breathing.

"Poor boy!" she said softly, and Drew thrilled at the sympathy in her
tone.

"I've been thinking, Allen, that perhaps we had better not rely
entirely on your digging for getting out of