tchers without. She lifted her head,
and the soft light reflected on her face.

"I--I thank God we are not over there now," she said falteringly.

"Yes," he admitted. "They will be creeping in closer; they will not
wait much longer. Hard as I have worked, I can't realize yet that we
are out of those toils."

"You did not expect to succeed?"

"No; frankly I did not; all I could do was hope--take the one chance
left. The slightest accident meant betrayal. I am ashamed of being so
weak just now, but it was the strain. You see," he explained
carefully, "I 've been scouting through hostile Indian country mostly
day and night for nearly a week, and then this thing happened. No
matter how iron a man is his nerve goes back on him after a while."

"I know."

"It was n't myself," he went on doggedly, "but it was the knowledge of
having to take care of you. That was what made me worry; that, and
knowing a single misstep, the slightest noise, would bring those devils
on us, where I could n't fight, where there was just one thing I could
do."

There was silence, her hands pressed to her face, her eyes fixed on
him. Then she questioned him soberly.

"You mean, kill me?"

"Sure," he answered simply, without looking around; "I would have had
to do it--just as though you were a sister of mine."

Her hands reached out and clasped his, and he glanced aside at her
face, seeing it clearly.

"I--I thought you would," she said, her voice trembling. "I--I was
going to ask you once before I was hurt, but--but I could n't, and
somehow I trusted you from the first, when you got in." She hesitated,
and then asked, "How did you know I was Molly McDonald? You never
asked."

The Sergeant's eyes smiled, turning away from her face to stare out
again across the river.

"Because I had seen your picture."

"My picture? But you told us you were from Fort Union?"

"Yes; that is my station, only I had been sent to the cantonment on the
Cimarron with despatches. Your father was in command there, and
worried half to death about you. He could not leave the post, and the
only officer remaining there with him was a disabled cavalry captain.
Every man he could trust was out on scouting service. He took a chance
on me. Maybe he liked my looks, I don't know; more probably, he judged
I would n't be a sergeant and entrusted with those despatches I 'd just
brought in, if I was n't considered trustworthy. Anyhow I had barely
fallen