he edge of the trees.

It was all subconscious, this completing of the task which Wilbur had
begun, and subconscious still was her careful rebuilding of the fire
till it flamed high, as though she were setting a signal to recall the
wanderer. But the flame, throwing warmth and red light across her
eyes, recalled her sharply to reality, and she looked up and saw the
dull dawn brightening beyond the dark evergreens.

Guilt, too, swept over her, for she remembered what big, handsome Dick
Wilbur had said: He would meet his end through a woman. Now it had
come to him, and through her.

She cringed at the thought, for what was she that a man should die in
her service? She raised her hands with a moan to the nodding tops of
the trees, to the vast, black sky above them, and the full knowledge of
Wilbur's strength came to her, for had he not ridden calmly, defiantly,
into the heart of this wilderness, confident in his power to care both
for himself and for her? But she! What could she do wandering by
herself? The image of Pierre le Rouge grew dim indeed and sad and
distant.

She looked about her at the pack, which had been distributed expertly,
and disposed on the ground by Wilbur. She could not even lash it in
place behind the saddle. So she drew the blanket once more around her
shoulders and sat down to think.

She might return to the house--doubtless she could find her way back.
And leave Pierre in the heart of the mountains, surely lost to her
forever. She made a determination, sullen, like a child, to ride on
and on into the wilderness, and let fate take care of her. The pack
she could bundle together as best she might; she would live as she
might; and for a guide there would be the hunger for Pierre.

So she ended her thoughts with a hope; her head nodded lower, and she
slept the deep, deep sleep of the exhausted mind and the lifeless body.
She woke hours later with a start, instantly alert, quivering with fear
and life and energy, for she felt like one who has gone to sleep with
voices in his ear.

While she slept some one had been near her; she could have sworn it
before her startled eyes glanced around.

And though she kept whispering, with white lips, "No, no; it is
impossible!" yet there was evidence which proved it. The fire should
have burned out, but instead it flamed more brightly than ever, and
there was a little heap of fuel laid conveniently close. Moreover,
both horses were saddled, and t