e looked at the angel on the other side of the
gulf.... I never thought to tell you this. I know that never, never,
never.... But this is the day of our death. In a few hours we shall be
gone. Do not leave the world in anger with me. Say that you pity,
understand, forgive.... Speak to me, madam!"

The sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened and deepened, and still
Patricia stood silent with uplifted and averted face, and fingers
tightly locked together. With a moan of mortal weakness Landless dragged
himself nearer until he touched with his forehead the low pedestal of
rock upon which she stood. "I understand," he said quietly. "After all,
there is nothing to be said, is there? Try to forget my--madness. Think
of it, if you will, as the raving of one at death's door. Let it be as
it was between us."

Patricia turned--her beautiful face transfigured. Roses bloomed in her
cheeks, her eyes were fathomless wells of splendor, an exquisite smile
played about her lips; with her nimbus of golden hair she looked a rapt
mediaeval saint. Her slender figure swayed towards Landless, and when she
spoke her voice was like the tone of a violin, soft, rich, caressing,
tremulous.

"There was no boat," she said.

"No boat!" he cried. "What do you mean?"

"The canoe going down the river. I told you that it held seven Indians
and the mulatto. I lied to you. There were no Indians, no mulatto, no
canoe. The shadows of the clouds have been upon the river, and the wild
fowl, and once a fish-hawk plunged. I have seen nothing else."

Landless gazed at her with staring eyeballs. "You have thrown away your
life," he said at last in a voice that did not seem his own.

"Yes, I have thrown away my life."

"But why--why--"

The rich color surged over her face and neck. She swayed towards him
with the grace of a wind-bowed lily, her breath fanning his forehead,
and her hand touching his, softly, flutteringly, like a young bird.

"Can you not guess why?" she said with an enchanting smile.

All the anguish of a little while back, all the terror of the fate that
hung over her, all the white calm of despair was gone. The horror that
moved nearer and nearer, moment by moment, through the painted forest,
was forgotten. She looked at him shyly from under her long lashes and
with another wonderful blush.

Landless gazed at her, comprehension slowly dawning in his eyes. For
five minutes there was a silence as of the dead beneath the crags. Then