Part 39 (1/2)

”What we have is worth thirty or forty thousand dollars,” he said reassuringly, as he filled his pail ater and they began to return

”We can do a great deal of good with that Endowhed

As he spoke, they both stopped, and listened Plainly they heard the approaching thud of hoofs MacDonald had been gone nearer two hours than one, and believing that it was hinal floated back to them softly Five minutes later MacDonald rode up and dismounted Until he had taken the saddle off, and had hobbled his horse, he did not speak Neither Joanne nor Aldous asked the question that was in their hearts But even in the darkness they felt soh the chas the air with a strange and subdued excitement And when MacDonald spoke, that which they had felt was in his voice

”You ain't seen or heard anything, Johnny?”

”Nothing And you--Donald?”

In the darkness, Joanne went to the old htly; and she found that Donald MacDonald's big hand was tree and curious way, and she could feel hi

”You found Jane?” she whispered

”Yes, I found her, little Joanne”

She did not let go of his hand until they entered the open space which Aldous had made in the spruce Then she remembered what Aldous had said to her earlier in the day, and cheerfully she lighted the two candles they had set out, and forced Aldous down first upon the ground, and then MacDonald, and began to help them to beans andout to know about the cavern--and Jane The candleglow told her a great deal, for in it Donald MacDonald's face was very cal she had felt Her woman's syht for speech, and when he ate but little she did not urge him to eat more; and when he rose and went silently and alone out into the darkness she held Aldous back; and when, still a little later, she went into her nest for the night, she whispered softly to him:

”I know that he found Jane as he wanted to find her, and he is happy I think he has gone out there alone--to cry” And for a tiloo like a little child in the spruce and cedar shelter he had built for her

CHAPTER XXVIII

If MacDonald slept at all that night Aldous did not know it The old mountaineer watched until a little after twelve in the deep shadow of a rock between the two caed hiht take a little stroll up the plain, Johnny--but I can't sleep”

The plain lay in a brilliant starlight at this hour; they could see the glealow of the moon

”There'll be plenty of sleep after to-morrow,” added MacDonald, and there was a finality in his voice and words which set the other's blood stirring

”You think they will show up to-morrow?”

”Yes This is the sa mountain runs out an' splits it, an' it curves like a horseshoe From that mount'in we can see theht to the cabins There's a deep little run under the slope You didn't see it e came out, but it'll take us within a hunderd yards of 'eed his shoulders suggestively in the starlight, and there was a smile on his face

”It seems almost like murder,” shuddered Aldous

”But it ain't,'” replied MacDonald quickly ”It's self-defence! If we don't do it, Johnny--if we don't draw on theoin' to happen again--with Joanne!”

”A hundred yards,” breathed Aldous, his jaws setting hard ”And there are five!”

”They'll go into the cabins,” said MacDonald ”At some time there will be two or three outside, an' we'll take them first At the sound of the shots the others will run out, and it will be easy Yo' can't very well miss a man at a hunderd yards, Johnny?”

”No, I won't oin' to take a little stroll, Johnny”

For two hours after that Aldous was alone He knehy old Donald could not sleep, and where he had gone, and he pictured hi before the little old cabin in the starlit valley co those two hours he steeled hi to happen when the day came

It was nearly three o'clock when MacDonald returned It was four o'clock before he roused Joanne; and it was five o'clock when they had eaten their breakfast, and MacDonald prepared to leave for the mountain with his telescope Aldous had observed Joanne talking to him for several minutes alone, and he had also observed that her eyes were very bright, and that there was an unusual eagerness in her nificance of this did not occur to hied him to accompany MacDonald