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Show i Bemglfce Story Certain Persons ' Uho Tranlc ofjtarcl Cjncre3 ( A R.omancc 6f C of or o 1 x-."' tfte.Bi5frvay! As"5e Spark "v.. r"-"" FfyJUw-a;.cJ , "' a -f -J- said the man, breaking the silence, "in which I had enclosed a paper saying that you were here and safe, save for your wounded foot, and giving direction how to rBach the place. I built a cairn of rocks in a sheltered shel-tered nook in the valley where your camp had been pitched and left the tightly corked bottle wedged on top of it. If they return to the camp they could scarcely fail to see it." "But if they don't go back there." "Well, It was just a chance." "And if they don't find me?" "You will have to stay here for a while; until your foot gets well enough to travel, anyway," returned the man, evasively. "But winter is coming on; you said the lake would freeze tonight and if it snows?" . "It will snow." The woman stared at him appalled. "And in that case " "I am afraid," was the slow reply, "that you will have to stay here." He hesitated in the face of her white, still face "all winter," he added, desperately. des-perately. "My God," exclaimed the girl, "alone, with you?" I "Miss Maitland," said the man, resolutely, reso-lutely, "I might as well tell you the truth. I can make my way to the settlements set-tlements now ot later, but it will be a journey of perhaps a week. There wil be no danger to me, but you will have to stay here. You could not go with me. If I am any judge you couldn't possibly use your foot for a mountain journey for at least 'three weeks, and by that time we shall be snowed in. smiled faintly as she used the old word of tropic island and southern sea "together. You have shown me that you are a man and a gentleman. In God and you I put my trust. When my foot gets well, if you can teach me to walk on snow shoes and it is possible pos-sible to get through the passes, we will try to get back; if not, we must wait." "The decision is yours," said the man, "and yet I feel that I ought to point out to you how " "I see all that you see," she interrupted. inter-rupted. "I know what is in your mind. It is entirely clear to me. We can do nothing else." "So be it. You need have no apprehension appre-hension as to your material comfort; 1 have lived in these mountains for a long time. I am prepared for any emergency. I pass my time in the summer getting ready for the winter. There is a. cave, or recess rather, behind be-hind the house which, as you see, is built against the rock wall, and it is filled with wood enough to keep us warm for two or Three winters; I have an ample supply of provision and clothing for my own needs. You will need something warmer than that you wear," he continued. "Have you -needle, thread and cloth?" she asked. "Everything," was the prompt answer. an-swer. "Then I shall not suffer." "Are you that wonder of wonders," asked the -man, smiling lightly, "an educated woman who knows how to sew ?" "It :is a 'tradition in Philadelphia," i which the lonely cabin stood was sbel tered from the prevailing winds, but the house itself was almost covered with the drifts. The constant firs roaring up the huge stone chimney had melted some of the snow at toe-top toe-top and it had run down the slanting roof and formed huge icicles on what had been the eaves of the house. The ' man had cut away the drifts front doors and windows for light and liberty. lib-erty. At first every stormy night would fill his laborious clearings with: drifting snow, but as it became packed pack-ed down and frozen solid he was able to keep his various ways open without a great deal of difficulty. A littls-work littls-work every morning and evening sufficed. suf-ficed. Every day he had to go down the mountain stairway to the bottom of the pocket to feed and water the burros. bur-ros. What was a quick and simplw-task simplw-task in milder, warmer seasons sont-times sont-times took him a half a day under the present rigorous conditions. And th woman never saw him start out la the storm without a sinking heart and grave apprehension. On his return to the cabin half frozen, almost spent and exhausted, she ever welcomed him with eager gratitude and satisfaction, which would shine in her eyes, throb In her heart and tremble upon her lips, control It as she might. And h thought it was well worth all the trouble trou-ble and hardships of his task to be so greeted when he came back to her. Winter had set in unusually early and with unprecedented severity. Any kind of winter In the mountains' would have amazed the girl, but evea the man with his larger experience-declared, experience-declared, he had never before known, such sharp and sudden cold, or suchv deep and lasting snows. His daily records had never shown such low temperatures nor had his observation.', ever noted such wild and furious-storms furious-storms as raged then and there. It-seemed It-seemed as if Nature were in a conspiracy con-spiracy to seal up the mountains and all they contained,, to - make ingress and egress alike impossible- A month had elapsed and Enid's foot was now quite well. The maa had managed to sew up her boot where the i knife had cut it and although al-though the job was a clumsy one tha result was a usable shoe. It 1.S astonishing as-tonishing the comfort she took when she first put it on and discarded for good the shapeless woolen stocking', which had covered the clumsy band- age happily no longer necessary. Although Al-though the torn and bruised member ' had healed and she could use it witbi care, her foot was still very tender and capable of sustaining no violent or long continued strain. Of necessity neces-sity she had been largely confined tc the house, but whenever It bad Deen ; possible he had wrapped her In his great bear skin coat and had helper! her out to the edge of the cliCt lot? a breath of fresh air. Sometimes he would leave ber there alone, would perhaps have left; her alone there always had she not. imperiously required his company. Insensibly she had acquired the habit hab-it not a difficult one for a woman to fall into of taking the lead in the small afitiirs of their circumscribed! existence, and he had acquiesced ia her dominance without hesitation or remonstrance. It was she who ordered or-dered their daily walk nnd converstv-tion. converstv-tion. Her wishes were consulte-i' about everything; lo be sure no great range of choice was allowed thein, of liberty of action or freedom ia the constraints with which nature bound them, but whenever there was uuy selection she made It. The man yielded everything for her and yet he did It without In any vtsijf derogating from his sclf-respecl of without surrendering his natural independence. in-dependence. The woman instlnotivo-ly instlnotivo-ly realized that In any great crlssls in uny large matter, the determination-of determination-of which would naturally effect their present or their future, their bapniii-ess, bapniii-ess, welfare life, he would asHert himself, him-self, and his assertion would be unquestioned un-questioned and unquestionable by ber;. There was a delightful Hatlaractiorj to the woman In the whole situation. She had a woman's desire'to lead ia the smaller things in life, and yet craved the woman's consclouBn that In the great emergencies nh would be led, In the great battles sh would be fought for, in the great dangers dan-gers she would be protected, in Ihtt great perils she would be saved. There was rest, comfort, Joy and satia-.'action satia-.'action In these thoughts. The strength of the man she mastered mas-tered was estimate of her own power and charm. There was a great, swecV voiceless, unconscious flattery in hiw deference of which she could not be unaware. (TO BE CONTINUED.) 11 SYNOPSIS. : Enid Maitland, a frank, free and nn- spoiled young Philadelphia girl, Is taken to the Colorado mountains by her uncle. Robert Maitland. James Armstrong. . Maitland's protege, falls In lo-e with her. His persistent wooing thrills the girl, but she hesitates, and Armstrong goes east on business without a definite answer. Enid hears the story of a mining en-gi-. neer, Newbold, whose wife fell off a cliff and was so seriously hurt that he was compelled to shoot her to prevent her being be-ing eaten by wolves while he went for help. Klrkby, the old guide who tells the Btory, gives Enid a package of letters which he says were found on the dead woman's body. She reads the letters and at Klrkby's request keeps them. While bathing In mountain stream Enid Is attacked at-tacked by a bear, which Is mysteriously shot. A storm adds to the girl's terror. A sudden deluge transform brook Into raging torrent, which sweeps Enid into gorge, where she is rescued by a mountain moun-tain hermit after a thrilling experience. Campers In great confusion upon discov-lng discov-lng Enid's absence when the storm breaks. Maitland and Old Klrkby go in search of the girl. Enid discovers that her ankle Is sprained and that she Is unable un-able to walk. Her mysterious rescuer carries her to his camp. Enid goes to sleep In the strange man's bunk. Miner cooks breakfast for Enid, after which they go on tour of Inspection. The hermit her-mit tells Enid of his unsuccessful attempt to find the Maitland campers. He admits that he Is also from Philadelphia. CHAPTER I. (Continued.) Entering the main room, he led her gently to one of the chairs, near the table and immediately thereafter lighted light-ed the fire which he had taken the precaution to lay before his departure It had been dark in the cabin, but the . fire soon filled it with glorious light. She watched him at his task and as he .rose from the hearth questioned him: "Now tell me," she began, "you found " "First your supper, and then the story," he answered, turning toward the door of the other room. "No," pleaded the girl, "can't you see that nothing is of any importance to me but the story? Did you find1 the' camp?" "I found the place where it had been." "Where it had been!" "There wasn't a single vestige of it left. That whole pocket, I knew it well, had been swept clean by the flood." "But Kirkby, and Mrs. Maitland and " "They weren't there." ' "Did you search for them?" "Certainly." "But they can't have been drowned," she exclaimed piteously. "Of course not," he began reassuringly. reassur-ingly. "Kirkby is a veteran of these mountains and " "But do you know him?" queried the girl In great surprise. "I did once," said the man, flushing ' darkly at his admission. "I haven't seen him for five years." So that was the measure of his Isolation, Iso-lation, thought the woman, keen for the slightest evidence as to her companion's com-panion's history, of which, by the way, he meant to tell her nothing. "Well?" she asked, breaking the pause. "Kirkby would certainly see the cloud burst coming and he would take the people with him in the camp up on the hogback near it. It is far above the flood line; they would be quite safe there." "And did you look for them there?" "I did. The trail had been washed out, but I scrambled up and found undisputed un-disputed evidence that my surmise was correct. I .haven't a doubt that all who were in the camp were saved." "Thank God for that," said the girl, greatly relieved and comforted by his reassuring words. "And Robert Maitland Mait-land and the rest on the mountain, what do you think of them?" "I am sure that they must have escaped, too. I don't think any of them have suffered more than a thorough thor-ough drenching in the downpour and that they are all safe and perhaps on their way to the settlements now." "But they wouldn't go back without -searching for me, would they?" cried the girl. "Certainly not. I suppose tbey are searching for you now." "Well then" "Wait," said the man. ' "You started start-ed down the canon, you told everybody every-body you were going that way. They naturally searched in that direction, they hadn't the faintest idea that you were going up the river. "No," admitted Enid, "that la true. I did not tell anyone. I didn't dream of going up the" canon when I started out iu the morning, it was the result of a sudden impulse." "God bless that " burst out the man, and then he checked himself, flushing again darkly. What had be been about to say? The question flashed across his own mind and into the woman's mind at the same time when she heard the Incompleted sentence; but she, too, checked tie question that rose to her lips. "This Is the way I figure it," continued con-tinued the man hurriedly to cover up Ills confusion. "They fancy themselves them-selves alone In these mountains, which, save for me, they are; they believe be-lieve you to have gone down tie cann on. Kirkby with Mrs. Maitland and the others waited on the ridge until Mr. Maitland and his party 'joined them. They couldn't have saved very much to eat or wear from the camp, they were miles from a settlement; they probably divided into two parties, the larger with the woman and children, chil-dren, started for home, the second went down the canon searching for your dead body!" "And had it not been for you," cried the girl, impulsively, "they had found it." "God permitted me to be of service to you," answered the man, simply. "I can follow their speculations exactly; exact-ly; up or down, they believed you to have been in the canon when the cloud burst, therefore there was only one place and one direction to search for you." "And that was?" "Down the canon?" "'What did you do then?" "I went down the canon myself. I think I saw evidence that some one had preceded me, too." "Did you overtake them?" "Certainly not, they traveled as rapidly as I; they must have started early in the morning and they bad several hours the advantage of me." "But they must have stopped somewhere some-where for the night and " "Yes," answered the man; "if I had only myself to consider, I should have pressed on through the night and overtaken them when they camped." "Only yourself?" "You made me promise to return here by nightfall. I don't know whether wheth-er I should have obeyed you or not. I kept on as long as I dared and still leave myself time to get back to you by dark." She had no idea of the desperate speed he had made to reach her while it was still daylight. "If you hadn't come when you did, I should have died," cried the girl impetuously. im-petuously. "You did perfectly right. I don't think I am a coward; I hope not, I never was afraid before, but " "Don't apologize or explain to me, it's not necessary; I understand everything ev-erything you feel. It was only because I had given you my word to be back by sunset that I left off following their trail. I was afraid that you might think me dead or that something had happened and " "I should, I did," admitted the girl. "It wasn't so bad during the day time, but when the sun went down and you did not come I began to imagine everything. ev-erything. I saw myself left alone here in these mountains, helpless, wounded, wound-ed, without a human being to speak to. I could not bear it." "But I have been here alone for five years," said the man grimly. "That's different. I don't know why you have chosen solitude, but I " "You are a woman," returned the other gently, "and you have suffered, that accounts for everything." "Thank you," said Enid, gratefully. "And I am so glad you came back to me." "Back to you," reiterated the man, and then he stopped. If. he had allowed al-lowed his heart to speak he would have said, Back to you from the very ends of the-world. "But I want you to believe that I honestly did not leave the trail until the ultimate moment," he added. "I do believe it;" she extended her hand to him. "You have been very good to me, I trust you absolutely." And for the second time he took that graceful, dainty, aristocratic hand in his own larger, stronger, firmer firm-er grasp. His face flushed again; under un-der other circumstances and in other days perhaps he might have kissed that hand. As it was he only held it for a moment and then gently released re-leased it. "And you think thty are searching for me?" she asked. "I know it. I am sure of what I myself would do for one I love I loved, I mean, and they " "And they will find me?" The man shook his head. ' "1-am afraid they will be convinced that you have gone down with the flood. Didn't you have a cap or " "Yes," said the woman, "and a sweater. The bear you shot covered the sweater with blood. I could not put It on again." As she spoke she flushed a glorious crimson at the remembrance of that meeting, but th-e man was looking away with studied care. She thanked him in her heart for such generous and kindly consideration. "They will have gone down the stream with the rest, and it's just possible pos-sible that the searchers may find them, the body of the bear, too. This river ends in a deep mountain lake and I think it is going to snow; it will be frozen hard tomorrow." "And they will think me there?" "I am afraid so." "And they won't come up here?" "It Is scarcely possible." "Oh!" exclaimed the woman faintly at the dire possibility that she might not be found. "I took an empty bottle with me," even your mind need not stsgnate." "I have looked at your books already," al-ready," said the woman, answering his glance. This was where she had found his name, he realized. "You will have this room for your own use and I will take the other for mine," he continued. "I am loath to dispossess you." "I shall be quite comfortable there, and this shall be your room exclusively exclusive-ly except when you bid me enter, as when I bring you your meals. I shall hold it inviolate." "But," said the woman, '"there must be an equal division of labor. I must do my share." "There isn't much to do in the winter win-ter except to take care of the burros, keep up the fire and prepare what we have to eat." "I am afraid I should be unequal to outdoor work, but in the rest I must do my part." - He recognized at once that idleness would be irksome. "So you shall," he assented heartily, "when your foot is well enough to make you an efficient member of our little society." "Thank you, and now " "Is tbere anything else before I get supper?" "You think there Is no hope of their searching for me here?" The man shook his head. "If James Armstrong had been in the party," she said reflectively, "I am sure he would never have given up." "And who is James Armstrong, may I ask?" burst forth the other bluntly. "Why he I he is a friend of my uncle and an acquaintance of my own." "Oh," said the man shortly and gloomily, as he turned away. Enid Maitland had been very brave in his presence, but when he went out she put ier head down on her arms on the table and cried softly to herself. her-self. Was ever a woman in such a predicament, thrown into the arms of a man who had established every conceivable con-ceivable claim upon her gratitude, forced to live with him shut up in a two-room log cabin upon , a lonely mountain range, surrounded by lofty and inaccessible peaks,- pierced by terrific ter-rific gorges soon to be impassable from the snows? She had read many stories of castaways, from Charles Reade's famous "Foul Play" down to more modern instances, but in those cases there had always been an island comparatively large over which to reign with privacy, seclusion, opportunity opportu-nity for withdrawal; bright heavens, balmy breezes, idyllic conditions.i Here were two uplifted from the earth' upon a sky-piercing mountain. They would have had more range of action and more liberty of motion if they had been upon a derelict in the ocean. And she realized at the same time that in all those stories the two castaways cast-aways always loved each other. Would it be so with them? Was it so? And again the hot flame within outvied the fire of the hearth as the blood rushed to the smooth surface of her cheek again. What would her father say if he could know her position, what would the world say, and above all what would Armstrong say. It cannot be denied that her thoughts were terribly terri-bly and overwhelmingly dismayed, and yet that despair was not without a certain relief. No man;had ever so interested her as this one. What was the mystery of his life, why was he there, what had he meant when he had blessed the idle impulse that had sent her into his arms? Her heart throbbed again. She lifted lift-ed her face from her hands and dried her tears, a warm glow stole over her and or:ce again not altogether from the fire. Who and what was this man? Who was that woman whose picture he had taken from her? Well, she w'ould have time to find out. And meantime the world outside could think and do what it pleased. She sat staring into the fire light, seeing pictures there, dreaming dreams. She was as lovely as an angel to the man when he came back into the room. CHAPTER XIV. The Woman's Heart. That upper earth on which they lived was covered with a thick blanket blank-et of snow. The lakes and pools were frozen from shore to shore. The mountain brooks, if they flowed at all, ran under thick arches of ice. The deepest canons were well nigh Impassible Impas-sible from huge drifts that sometimes almost rose level with the tops of the walls. In every sheltered spot great banks of white were massed. The spreading branches of the tall pine trees In the valleys drooped under heavy burdens of snow. Only here and there sharp gaunt peaks were swept clean by the fierce winter winds and thrust themselves upward in Icy air, naked and bare. The cold was polar In Its bitter Intensity. The little shelf or plateau jutting out from the mountain side upon "And Who Is James Armstrong?" as effectually as if we were within the arctic circle. But if you will let me go alone to the settlement I can bring back your uncle, a woman to keep you company, before the trails are Impassible. Or enough men to make it practicable to take you through the canons and down the trails to your home again. I could not do that alone even if you were well, in the depth of winter." The girl shook her head stubbornly. . "A week alone in these mountains and I should be mad," she said decisively. deci-sively. "It isn't to be thought of." "It must be thought of," urged the man. "You don't understand. It is either that or spend the winter here with me." The woman looked at him steadily. "And what have I to fear from you?" she asked. "Nothing, nothing, as God is my witness," protested the other; "but the world?" "The world," said the woman reflectively. reflec-tively. "I don't mean to say that it means nothing to me, but it has cause enough for what It would fain say now." She came to her decision swiftly. swift-ly. "There is no help for It," she continued, "we are marooned" she ' answered the girl, "that her daughters should be expert needlewomen." "Oh, you are from Philadelphia." "Yes, and you?" She threw the question at him so deftly and so quickly that she caught him unaware and off his guard a second sec-ond time within the hour. "Baltimore," he answered before he thought, and then bit his lip. He had determined to vouchsafe her no information infor-mation regarding himself, and here she had surprised him into an admission in the first blush of their acquaintance, acquaint-ance, and she knew that she had triumphed tri-umphed for she smiled in recognition of it. She tried another tack. "Mr. Newbold," she began at a venture, ven-ture, and as it was five years since he had heard that name, his surprise at I her knowledge, which after all was very simple, betrayed him a third time. "We are like stories I have read, j-eople who have been cast away on desert islands and " "Yes," said the man, "but no castaways cast-aways that I have ever read of have been so bountifully provided with everything ev-erything necessary to the comfort of life as we are. I told you I lacked nottiag for your material welfare, and |