gropingly, on the log
over which she had fallen the night before--beneath which, like some
animal, she had cowered all that awful night on the heap of pine
needles which she had swept up for herself!

A cry broke from Sim Gage's lips. She heard him and herself called out
aloud, "Sim! Sim! Is it you? I knew it was you when the dog came!"

And then, still shivering and trembling with fear and cold and
exhaustion, Mary Warren once more lost all sense of things, and dropped
limp. The little dog stood licking at her hands and face.

Here was work for Doctor Barnes after all. He took charge. The four
of them carried the woman up the hill to the car. He had restoratives
which served in good stead now.

"Poor thing!" said he. "Out all night! It's just a God's mercy she
didn't freeze to death, that's all."

He himself was wondering at the extraordinary beauty of this woman.
Who was she--what was there in this talk that two ranchmen had made,
down there at the dam? Why, this was no ordinary ranchwoman at all,
but a woman of distinction, one to attract notice anywhere.

Mary Warren at last began to talk,--before the smoke cloud drove them
down the trail. "I heard a shot," said she, turning a face toward
them. "Who was it? I didn't signal then, for I didn't know. I
waited. Then the dog came."

No one answered her.

"That must have been what brought me to. It sounded up the hill.
Where--where is he?"

They did not answer even yet, and she went on.

"Who are you all?" she demanded. "I don't see you, of course." She
was looking into the face of Doctor Barnes who bent above her, his hand
on her pulse.

"I'm Doctor Barnes," said he. "I work down at the Company's plant at
the big dam. You are Miss Mary Warren, are you not?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"I won't introduce these others, but they're all friends--we all are."

She was recognizing the voice, the diction of a gentleman. The thought
gave her comfort.

"What's that smoke?" she said suddenly, herself catching the scent
pervading the air.

"The whole mountain's afire," said Sim Gage. "We got to hurry if we
get out of here."

"I know--it was those people!--Where is that man? You found him?"

The voice of Doctor Barnes broke in quickly. "He'd been hurt by a
tree--we had to leave him because he was too far gone, Miss Warren,"
said he. "We couldn't save him. He couldn't answer any questions--not
even a hypothetical question--when we tried h