mp," faltered the young man
weakly. "May I bring him in for a minute, Mr. McIntyre?"

"Yes! yes! Come in! come in!" cried John McIntyre, setting down the
lamp and hurrying forward with a chair. "I'll fix up the bed----" He
stopped suddenly and gazed stupidly at the stranger. His eyes dilated,
his face became overspread with the awe and wonder of some discovery
too great to be grasped. The chair fell from his hands with a crash.
He uttered a single word, and in it there was a world of unbelieving
joy and fear.

"Martin!" he whispered.

The stranger raised his drooping head. He stared in turn at the
stooped shoulders, the drawn face, and the white hair of John McIntyre,
and his strength seemed suddenly to return. He pushed Gilbert aside as
if he had been a child, and caught the man's shoulders in a mighty
grip. He held him away from him for a moment, and then broke into a
great sob:

"John! My God! old John! Have I found you?"

With a face of deep wonder, Gilbert slipped softly outside, closing the
door behind him. And as he looked toward the place where he had so
lately had a desperate struggle with death, he saw that the night mists
were slowly vanishing. The whole dark earth was awakening in one grand
bird-chorus, for the dawn was breaking over the Drowned Lands.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE END OF THE WAITING

Blue on the branch and blue in the sky,
And naught between but the breezes high;
And naught so blue by the breezes stirred
As the deep, deep blue of the indigo bird.

Joy in the branch and joy in the sky,
And naught between but the breezes high,
And naught so glad on the breezes heard
As the gay, gay note of the indigo bird.
--ETHELWYN WETHERALD.

Miss Arabella's wedding day was a perfect rose of June as it dawned
over the hills and dales of Oro and waked the robins in Treasure Valley
to ecstatic song. The date was two weeks later than that set for the
elopement, for the bridegroom needed some time to recover from his
injudicious attempt to cross the swamp and surprise his little bride by
arriving a day earlier.

Then the doctor was in almost as bad a plight, with a wrenched arm and
a great gash in his forehead; and in any case, the wedding must needs
wait until he could make a respectable appearance as best man. Mrs.
Winters, too, declared she must have a few days to recover her breath
and get used to the idea of Arabella getting married, not to speak of