tice and a clean-breathing
outdoor life; but presently her breath began to fail, her heart to
thump madly against her slim sides. Then--around a bend of the trail
came Jean, returning earlier than his wont. With an exclamation of
glad surprise he sprang forward to meet her. Still more was his
surprise when she caught him by the shoulders with both hands and
leaned, gasping and sobbing, against his breast.

After one fierce clasp he held her lightly and tenderly like a child,
and anxiously scanned her face.

"What is it, Barbe, beloved? What is the matter?" he questioned
eagerly.

"The ship," she panted, "must go! You must go--_to-morrow_ night!"

"Why? But it is impossible!" he protested, bewildered. "Mich' won't
be here till the day after--and one man can't launch her, and can't
sail her all by himself."

"I tell you it must be done," she cried imperiously. "You must, you
must!" And then, in a few edged words, she explained the situation.
"If you can't, all is lost," she concluded, "for they will discover
you, and seize the ship, the day after to-morrow. Jean, I would never
believe that you had any such word as 'can't.'"

By this time Jean's face was white and his jaw was set.

"Of course," he said quietly, "it will be done somehow. I'm not beaten
till I'm dead. But the chances are, Sweet, that after I get the little
ship launched I'll run her aground somewhere down the river, and be
caught next day like a rat in a barrel. It's ticklish navigating at
best, down the river, and one man can't rightly manage even the
foresail alone, and steer, in those eddies and twists in the channel.
But--"

"But, Jean--" she interrupted, and then paused, leaning close against
him, and looking up at him with eyes that seemed to him to make a
brightness in the dark.

"But what, beautiful one?" he questioned, leaning his face over her,
and growing suddenly tremulous with a vague, wonderful expectancy.

"I can help! Take me!" And she hid her eyes against his rough
shirt-sleeve.

For one moment Jean stood tense, moveless, unable to apprehend this
sudden realization of his dreams. Then he swung her light figure up
into his arms, and covered her face and hair with kisses. With a
little smile of content upon her lips she suffered his madness for a
while. Then she made him put her down.

"There is no time now to make love to me," she said. "We've so much to
do and plan. You've never run away with a ship and a