th fever and became delirious. And I think
it was that seeming misfortune that saved us, for it gave me a spring
for action and endowed me with new life. As luck would have it, a
stream of water was near, and I half carried and half dragged him to
its edge.

I made a bed for him with my own clothing on the hard rock, and bathed
him and made him drink, while all the time a string of delirious drivel
poured forth from his hot, dry lips.

That lasted many hours, until finally he fell into a deep, calm sleep.
But his body was without fuel, and I was convinced he would never
awaken; yet I feared to touch him. Those were weary hours, squatting
by his side with his hand gripped in my own, with the ever-increasing
pangs of hunger and weariness turning my own body into a roaring
furnace of pain.

Suddenly I felt a movement of his hand; and then came his voice, weak
but perfectly distinct:

"Well, Paul, this is the end."

"Not yet, Harry boy; not yet."

I tried to put cheer and courage into my own voice, but with poor
success.

"I--think--so. I say, Paul--I've just seen Desiree."

"All right, Hal."

"Oh, you don't need to talk like that; I'm not delirious now. I guess
it must have been a dream. Do you remember that morning on the
mountain--in Colorado--when you came on us suddenly at sunrise? Well,
I saw her there--only you were with her instead of me. So, of course,
she must be dead."

His logic was beyond me, but I pressed his hand to let him know that I
understood.

"And now, old man, you might as well leave me. This is the end.
You've been a good sport. We made a fight, didn't we? If only
Desiree--but there! To Hades with women, I say!"

"Not that--don't be a poor loser, Hal. And you're not gone yet. When
a man has enough fight in him to beat out an attack of fever he's very
much alive."

But he would not have it so. I let him talk, and he rambled on, with
scarcely an idea of what he was saying. The old days possessed his
mind, and, to tell the truth, the sentiment found a welcome in my own
bosom. I said to myself, "This is death."

And then, lifting my head to look down the dark passage that led away
before us, I sprang to my feet with a shout and stood transfixed with
astonishment. And the next instant there came a cry of wonder from
Harry:

"A light! By all the gods, a light!"

So it was. The passage lay straight for perhaps three hundred yards.
There it turned abruptly; and the