comfort you," he said brokenly.

"They have told me that at moonrise we leave this place--and you. They
say that it is all they can do for you--to leave you here. All!--Oh, my
God!"

"They have done what they could," he said gravely. "I recognize that.
And I wish you to do so too, sweetheart."

She looked at him wildly. "I have been silent," she said, pressing her
clasped hands against her bosom. "I have not told them. I have obeyed
what I read in your eyes. But was it well? Oh, my dear, let me speak!"

He took her hands from her breast and laid them against his own. "No,"
he said with a smile, "I love you too well for that."

From the woods across the river came the crying of wolves, then a
silence as of the grave; then a whisper arose in the long dry grass and
the leafless vines, and a cold breeze lifted the hair from their
foreheads. The whisper grew into a murmur, prolonged and deep, a sound
as of a distant cataract, or of the dash of surf upon a far away
shore--the voice of the wind in the world of trees. A star shot, leaving
a stream of white fire to fade out of the dark blue sky. From the forest
came again the cry of the wolves. In the camp below there seemed some
stir, and the figure seated on the rock turned its head towards them and
lifted a warning hand.

"You must go," said Landless. "It was madness for you to venture here.
See, the light is growing in the east."

With a low, desolate moaning sound she wrung the hands he released and
raised her face to his. He kissed her upon the brow, the eyes and the
mouth. "Good-by, my life, my love, my heart," he said. "We were happy
for an hour. Good-by!"

"I will be brave," she answered. "I will live my life out. I will pray
to God. And, Godfrey, I will be ever true to you. I shall never see you
again, my dear, never hear of you more, never know till my latest day
whether you are of this world still, or whether you have waited for me a
long time, up there beyond those lights. If it--if death--should come
Boon, wait for me--beyond--in perfect trust, my dear, for I will come
to you--I will come to you as I am, Godfrey."

He bowed his face upon her hands.

The breeze freshened, and the sound of the surf became the sound of
breakers. In the east the pale light strengthened. The figure below them
stood up and beckoned.

"The moon is coming," said Patricia. "Once before I watched for it--in
terror, with pride and anger in my heart. Then, when I thought of you,