uss about it, Diane? Lord Almighty!" added this
exceedingly practical and democratic young man, "I shouldn't worry
myself if my grandfather was a salamander! . . . And, besides, your
true Indian is an awfully good sport. He's proud and fearless and
inherently truthful--"

"I know," said Diane. "It isn't that I mind--so much. It--it's the
other."

"Of course!" said Philip gently, "but, somehow, I can't believe it's
true, Diane. There's logic against it. Why, Great Scott!" he added
cheerfully, for all there was a lump in his throat at the wistful
tragedy in the girl's eyes, "there's Theodomir's own statement in the
candlestick--have you forgotten?"

"It spoke of--of marriage?"

"It said that Theodomir had gone into the Glades hunting and had come
upon the Indian village. There he met and married your mother and
later divorced her."

"If I could only be sure!" faltered Diane.

"You can," said Philip, "for I am going back to the Glades to-morrow to
hunt this thing to earth. The old chief will know."

"But the trail, Philip?"

"There are ways of finding it," said Philip reassuringly.

He was so cool and matter-of-fact, so entirely cheerful and
resourceful, that Diane found his comfortable air of confidence
contagious. Only for a time, however. A little later she glanced
mutely into his face, met his eyes, flushed scarlet and fell to shaking
again.

"Philip!" she whispered.

"Yes?" There was a wonderful gentleness in Philip's voice.

"I--I can't go back to camp yet, for all it's raining."

"Well," said Philip comfortably, "rain be hanged. We'll wait a bit."

Diane gave a sigh of relief and lay very quiet.

Philip wisely said nothing. He shifted the lantern so his own face
might be in the shadow and for some reason of his own, fell to speaking
of Carl. He told of Mic-co, of the quiet hours of healing by the pool,
of another night of storm and stress when Carl had gone forth into the
wilds with the Indian girl.

For the first time now he felt that he had pierced the girl's shell of
tragic introspection and caught her interest. Though the rain came
faster and the lantern flickered, Philip went on with his quiet story.

He spoke of the forces that had fired Carl to drunken resentment, the
defection of his comrades, his conviction of injustice in the
apportionment of the Westfall estate, the climax of his sensitive
rebellion against Diane's attitude toward his mother, the morose and
morbid lo