moral
law?"

"That which makes for life, perhaps, as some one has said," offered
Claire.

"For my life, yes. That which to me means life, is good. That which to
me means less life, is bad."

"Yet you carried Claire through the mountains," Philip's voice was hard.

"Because I needed her, because she was essential to my life."

"Then you would have left her, had she been a hindrance?"

"That depends," answered Lawrence slowly. "Had she made my life
uncertain when otherwise I might have lived, I think I would. Of course,
if her being there merely increased my trouble, I should have brought
her."

Claire was watching Philip's face. It was a study. On it there was
something that made her heart beat faster, she found herself unable to
tell why. She glanced at Lawrence. There he sat, his strong, stern face,
calm and soulless. She wondered why blindness robbed this man of his
rightful appearance. He had a soul, and it was a wild, beauty-loving
soul, she knew, but blindness quite mantled it. On the other hand,
Philip's was a mighty fire within, which shone in beauty through his
eyes. Lawrence had quietly spoken of how he would have left her under
other circumstances. Philip would have died at her side, she knew it.
What a difference between them!

"But if you feel as you declare, why take that extra trouble to save
her?" Philip asked.

"Because I have a certain dislike of death and don't care to cause it
myself if I can help it."

Claire laughed. "But death, you said once, is a mere stopping of animal
action. Why dread that?"

"Because I myself do not care to die, I would not care to cause your
death."

Philip rose and went to the fire. "I do not believe you could live by
your theory," he asserted.

"I do live by it. There is but one thing I dread worse than death. I
would die rather than give up my creative impulse."

"And he would sacrifice your life or mine for art's sake," merrily added
Claire. "It's a good thing he doesn't think we are hindrances to art."

Philip also laughed. "Well," he said, "there might come a time when I,
too, would want a thing enough to kill in order to obtain it."

"What, for example?" asked Lawrence. "That is the best way to determine
your value of life."

Philip did not answer for a few minutes, then his voice vibrated.

"The things that mean more than life to me. I know that one holds his
own life dear, but there are things, love, courage, honor, for example,
that he hold