; one of us must go in, and I think it had better be
you. Make a good fire, see that there is plenty of hot water and get
something to eat so as to be ready to do things when I come back."

Johnny acquiesced and Julia, having watched him into the house, took
up her lantern and set out in the direction of the sandhills.

It was her last resource; it did not seem to her likely that her
father could have gone there; at the best of times he disliked the
place, finding it very tiring. Still, with the wind behind him as it
would have been this morning, it is possible he would have found it
the easiest way--if he could have managed to forget what the coming
back would be. At all events she determined to try it, so she set out
for the waste.

By this time the moon was rising, and, in spite of the driving clouds
which had not all dispersed, at times it shone clear. Beneath it the
stretch of sand lay pale and desolate, a new-formed landscape of fresh
contours, loosely-piled hills and shallow scooped hollows shaped by
to-day's wind. An easy place for a man to miss his way with a gale
blowing and the sand dancing blinding reels. A hard place for a man to
travel far when he had to face the wind; a strong man would have found
it very tiring, a weak man might well have given it up, driven to
waiting for a lull in the weather. As for a man in the Captain's
health--when Julia thought of it she hurried on, although she knew if
her father had to-day, as he had all through his life, followed the
line of least resistance, the chances were that her help would be of
little avail to him now.

She carried her lantern low, looking carefully for footprints; soon,
however, she put it out; she would do better without in the increasing
moon-light. But she found no prints; after all, as she remembered, she
was hardly likely to; the wind and blowing sand would have obliterated
them. Over the first level of sand she went to the nearest rise
without seeing anything; up to that and down the following hollow,
looking in every curve and indentation, still without seeing anything.
Then she began to climb the next rise. The moon was struggling through
a long cloud, one moment eclipsed, the next shining with a half
radiance which made the landscape unevenly black and white. For a
second it looked out clear, and the sand showed like silver,
tear-spotted with ink in the hollows; then the cloud swept up and all
turned to a level grey. She had climbed to the