"I couldn't sleep," she whispered. "I heard you leave and dressed to

wait." She looked in the dim light as slight as a child, and with his

hand at her waist he sunk on his knee to look up into her face. "How

can I deserve it all?"

She blinded his upturned eyes in her hands, and not until she found her

fingers were wet did she understand all he had tried to put into his

words.

"Have you any news?" she murmured, as he rose.

"I believe they have found him."

She clasped her hands. "Heaven be praised. Oh, is it sure?"

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"I mean, Dancing, the old lineman, has seen his fire. At least, we are

certain of it. We have been watching it two hours. It's a speck of a

blaze away across toward the mines. It never grows nor lessens, just a

careful little campfire where fuel is scarce--as it is now with all the

snow. We've lighted a big beacon on the hill for an answer, and at

daybreak we shall go after him. The planning is all done and I am free

now till we're ready to start."

She tried to make him lie down for a nap on the couch. He tried to

persuade her to retire until morning, and in sweet contention they sat

talking low of their love and their happiness--and of the hills a

reckless girl romped over in old Allegheny, and of the shingle gunboats

a sleepy-eyed boy launched in dauntless fleets upon the yellow eddies

of the Mississippi; and of the chance that should one day bring boy and

girl together, lovers, on the crest of the far Rockies.

Lights were moving up and down the hill when they rose from Clem's

astonishing breakfast.

"You will be careful," she said. He had taken her in his arms at the

door, and promising he kissed her and whispered good-by.




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