in our way."

At first Stubbs thought this was the fever, but as he looked at the
tense face, the locked jaw, the burning eyes, he saw it was only a man
in earnest. Some spark within his own breast warmed to life before
this passion. He put out his hand.

"An' I signs with you right here."

"I've turned aside for things all I'm going to," ran on Wilson,
excitedly. "Now I'm going over them. I'm going straight--I'm going
hard--and I'm not going to turn my back on her again for a second. Do
you understand, Stubbs? She's mine and I'm going to take her."

"You won't have to take her, if you feel that way," answered Stubbs.

"What d' you mean?"

"She'll go, boy--she'll go through Hell with you with thet look in
your eyes."

"Then come on," shouted Wilson, with quite unnecessary fierceness.
"I'm going to pull out of this heathen web."

The two men rose to their tired feet, every muscle protesting, and
before dark Stubbs learned how little the body counts, how little
anything counts, before the will of a man who has focused the might of
his soul upon a single thing. They moved down ever towards the blue
lake which blinked back at the sun like a blue-eyed babe. Their rifles
pressed upon their shoulders like bars of lead; their heavy feet were
numb; their eyes bulged from their heads with the strain of keeping
them open. Of the long, bitter struggle, it is enough to say that it
was a sheer victory over the impossible. Each mile was a blank, yet
they pressed forward, Wilson ever in the lead, Stubbs ever plodding
behind. It was almost as though they were automatons galvanized by
some higher intelligence, for their own had become numbed save to the
necessity of still dragging their feet ahead. In this way they reached
the shores of the lake; in this way they circled it; in this way they
neared the hut of Flores. Stumbling along the trail, guided by some
instinct, Wilson raised his head at the sight of two figures sitting
in the sun by the door of the hut; one was the girl, he saw that
clearly enough, for to his own vision it was as the sun breaking
through low-hanging clouds; but the other--he motioned Stubbs to halt.
The two had made no noise, coming up through the undergrowth from the
lake, and were now able to conceal themselves partly behind a sort of
high bush. Had those in the hut been alert, the two could not have
escaped detection, but so intent they seemed upon their conversation
that a dozen men might have appro