tarily looked uneasily at the smith who was tramping along
behind them.

The lakes were now left behind, and the rocks were nearer. Far behind
from the hospice some one came running swiftly. It seemed to Cain that
he recognized Vincenza; but she turned off from the road into some
hilly meadow land and disappeared. So he was not sure whether he had
seen correctly. He and Katharine now began to talk of things that had
to do with their approaching separation. The old woman was overcome by
grief, and her tears flowed freely down the furrows on her wrinkled
cheeks. Cain tried his best to comfort her, and his sympathy and
affection moved him so, that he did not notice when they passed the
Schwarzsee and the road began to wind down toward the valley. When he
again took note of his surroundings, they had gone quite a distance
downward, and he called out quickly to the teamsters to stop and let
him get off. At the same time he looked about for Fausch, who was
nowhere to be seen.

"My father has not come with us," said he to Katharine. "You might wait
for him here," he added, and then said: "I must go now. I shall meet my
father on the road." Then he shook hands with the old woman.

"We shall never see each other any more," she lamented.

"Take care of yourself," said he. "You will be glad to be back in the
old place again down below!"

Then he jumped down. He hurried on up the hill and did not look back
again at the wagon, which stood in the road. A restlessness drove him
involuntarily onward. It seemed strange that his father did not come.

As he approached the entrance to the pass, he saw the smith standing by
the roadside. He was leaning against a rock, from which there was a
wide view over the high plateau. The glaring light, that the white sky
cast over the earth, had grown yet more dazzling. The whole valley
floor seemed to be brought quite close to the eyes. The dark lakes
glistened; the road lay between them, a blinding stripe of white. The
mountains stood like a dark wall beneath the glistening sky, showing
every gap and fissure in the rocks, which were like scars on their
weatherbeaten forms.

As Cain came forward, Fausch turned toward him. "Are they waiting down
there?" he asked.

Just then some one came out from between the rocks, by which he had
been standing. It was Vincenza. She behaved as if her coming was
perfectly natural, but her face was flushed. "I didn't have a chance to
bid you good-by, Smith," s