e you with me." Then
she stood stiffly upright, facing him. "I'm ready now," she announced
calmly. "You can go on ahead."

They crept among low shrubs and around the bowlders, carefully guarding
every slightest movement lest some rustle of disturbed foliage, or
sound of loosened stone, might draw the fire of those keen watchers.
Nor dared they ignore the close proximity of their own little company,
who, amid such darkness, might naturally suspect them for approaching
savages. Every inch of their progress was attained through tedious
groping, yet the distance to be traversed was short, and Hampton soon
found himself pressing against the uprising precipice. Passing his
fingers along the front, he finally found that narrow ledge which he
had previously located with such patient care, and reaching back, drew
the girl silently upon her feet beside him. Against that background of
dark cliff they might venture to stand erect, the faint glimmer of
reflected light barely sufficient to reveal to each the shadowy outline
of the other.

"Don't move an inch from this spot," he whispered. "It wouldn't be a
square deal, Kid, to leave those poor fellows to their death without
even telling them there's a chance to get out."

She attempted no reply, as he glided noiselessly away, but her face,
could he have seen it, was not devoid of expression. This was an act
of generosity and deliberate courage of the very kind most apt to
appeal to her nature, and within her secret heart there was rapidly
developing a respect for this man, who with such calm assurance won his
own way. He was strong, forceful, brave,--Homeric virtues of real
worth in that hard life which she knew best. All this swept across her
mind in a flash of revelation while she stood alone, her eyes
endeavoring vainly to peer into the gloom. Then, suddenly, that black
curtain was rent by jagged spurts of red and yellow flame. Dazed for
an instant, her heart throbbing wildly to the sharp reports of the
rifles, she shrank cowering back, her fascinated gaze fixed on those
imp-like figures leaping forward from rock to rock. Almost with the
flash and sound Hampton sprang hastily back and gathered her in his
arms.

"Catch hold, Kid, anywhere; only go up, and quick!"

As he thus lifted her she felt the irregularities of rock beneath her
clutching fingers, and scrambled instinctively forward along the narrow
shelf, and then, reaching higher, her groping hands clasped