at day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around my
throat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge upon my
cheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggar maid,
in rags, burnt by the sun--"

"The nut-brown maid," he said.

"Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid--'For in my mind of all
mankind'--you may e'en finish it yourself, sir."

The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council.
It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steep
and upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless,
kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he and
Patricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw up
his arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of his
fellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came,
yelling furiously and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired and
missed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior,
bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, then
turning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight.

"They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They will
try now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, my
queen, while I face them, coming over the rocks."

"I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows to
me."

"His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart."

"I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love."

Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark red
line--the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, very slowly
and cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then a coarse black
scalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo of Landless's
shot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smoke cleared only
the bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came a derisive
yell.

"Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as he
reloaded his musket. "I have missed again."

"It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds."

"I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked at
her with shining eyes.

The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The evening star
was brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landless said
quietly: "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which for one