orthwith turned his head away, while a quiver seemed to run
through him; but when Hetty moved towards him the fraeulein laughed.

"It nothing is," she said. "It is, perhaps, the effect tobacco have, but
the mouth is soft in a man."

Then, as Larry turned towards them she laid her hands on Hetty's
shoulders, and kissed her gravely. "You have trust in him," she said. "It
is of no use afraid to be. I quick take a man like Mr. Grant when he ask
me."

The next moment they were outside, and when he helped her to the saddle,
Hetty glanced shyly at her companion. "The fraeulein is right," she said.
"But, Larry, will you tell me--where we are going?"

"To Windsor. I have still good friends there. That is the prosaic fact,
but there is ever so much behind it. We can't see the trail just now,
dear, but we are riding out into the future that has all kinds of
brightness in store."

A silvery gleam fell on the girl as a billow of cloud rolled slowly from a
rift of blue, and she laughed almost exultantly.

"Larry," she said, "it is coming true. Of course, it's a portent. There's
the darkness going and the moon shining through. Oh, I have done with
misgiving now!"

She shook the bridle, and swept from him at a gallop, and the
thaw-softened sod was whirling in clods behind them when Larry drew level
with her. He knew it was not prudent, but the fever in his blood mastered
his reason, and he sent the stockrider's cry ringing across the levels as
they sped on through the night. The damp wind screamed by them, lashing
their hot cheeks, the beat of hoofs swelled into a roar as they swept
through a shadowy bluff, and driving cloud and rift of indigo flitted past
above. Beneath, the long, frost-bleached levels, gleaming silvery grey now
under the moon, flitted back to the drumming hoofs, while willow clump and
straggling birches rose up, and rushed by, blurred and shadowy.

They were young, and the cares that must be faced again on the morrow had,
for a brief space, fallen from them. They had bent to the strain to the
breaking point, and now it had gone, everything was forgotten but the love
each bore the other. All senses were merged in it, and while the
exaltation lasted there was no room for thought or fear. It was, however,
the man who remembered first, for a few dark patches caught his eye when
they went at a headlong gallop down the slope.

"Pull him!" he cried hoarsely. "'Ware badger holes! Swing to the
right-wide!"

The gi