in my face.

"Watch!" she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff.

Like a squirrel she clambered swiftly aloft, so that I was forced

to exert myself to keep pace with her. At first she frightened me;

but presently I was aware that she was quite as safe here as was I.

When we finally came to my ledge and I again held her in my arms,

she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she had been living

the life of a cave-girl with the tribe of hatchet-men. They had

been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain

many and carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to

which they had flown had proven far higher and more precipitous, so

that she had become, through necessity, a most practiced climber.

She told me of Kho's desire for her, since all his females had

been stolen and of how her life had been a constant nightmare of

terror as she sought by night and by day to elude the great brute.

For a time Nobs had been all the protection she required; but one

day he disappeared--nor has she seen him since. She believes that

he was deliberately made away with; and so do I, for we both are

sure that he never would have deserted her. With her means of

protection gone, Lys was now at the mercy of the hatchet-man;

nor was it many hours before he had caught her at the base of the

cliff and seized her; but as he bore her triumphantly aloft toward

his cave, she had managed to break loose and escape him.

"For three days he has pursued me," she said, "through this

horrible world. How I have passed through in safety I cannot

guess, nor how I have always managed to outdistance him; yet I

have done it, until just as you discovered me. Fate was kind

to us, Bowen."

I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me. And then we

talked and planned as I cooked antelope-steaks over my fire, and

we came to the conclusion that there was no hope of rescue, that

she and I were doomed to live and die upon Caprona. Well, it

might be worse! I would rather live here always with Lys than to

live elsewhere without her; and she, dear girl, says the same of

me; but I am afraid of this life for her. It is a hard, fierce,

dangerous life, and I shall pray always that we shall be rescued

from it--for her sake.

That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our

little ledge; and there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward