Part 39 (2/2)

”Two pairs of eyes are better than one, John,” she said, ”and I cannot possibly be in danger here I can see you all the time, and you can see hed a little breathlessly

”There is no danger, is there, Donald?”

The old hunter shook his head

”There's no danger, but--you ht be lonesome,” he said

Joanne put her pretty mouth close to Aldous' ear

”I want to be alone for a little while, dear,” she whispered, and there was thather, and o with MacDonald

In three quarters of an hour they had reached the spur of the mountain from which MacDonald had said they could see up the valley, and also the break through which they had co low, but as these melted away under the sun mile after mile of a marvellous panorama spread out swiftly under therew, the deeper became the disappointment in MacDonald's face For half an hour after the one he neither spoke nor lowered the telescope fro the valley A little later, on a green slope, he discerned ahulk that he kneas a bear He did not speak until old Donald lowered the glass

”I can see for eight ht,”

said MacDonald in answer to his question ”I figgered they'd be along about now, Johnny”

A dozen times Aldous had looked back at the cah the telescope She was nowhere in sight A bit nervously he returned the telescope to MacDonald

”And I can't see Joanne,” he said

MacDonald looked For five lass steadily at the camp Then he shi+fted it sloard, and a low exclalass, and looked at Aldous

”Johnny, she's just goin' into the gorge! She was just disappearin' when I caught her!”

”Going into--the gorge!” gasped Aldous, ju to his feet ”Mac----”

MacDonald rose and stood at his side There was soh that came from deep in his chest

”She's beat us!” he chuckled ”Bless her, she's beat us! I didn't guess why she was askin' me all them questions An' I told her, Johnny--told her just where the cavern was up there in the gorge, an' how you wouldn't hardlyit would take to _walk_ there, an' I told her half an hour An' she's going to the cavern, Johnny!”

He was telescoping his long glass as he spoke, and while Aldous was still staring toward the gorge in wonderment and a little fear, he added:

”We'd better follow Quade an' Rann can't get here inside o' two or three hours, an' we'll be back before then” Again he ruh ”She beat us, Johnny, she beat us fair! An' she's got spirrit, a wunnerful spirrit, to go up there alone!”

Aldous wanted to run, but he held himself down to MacDonald's stride His heart trembled apprehensively as they hurriedly descended thehi Quade and Mortih The old mountaineer was positive that the other party was behind them Aldous asked hih were _ahead_ of the for their opportunity He had suggested that theyfarther to the west, with the plan of descending upon the valley from the north, and MacDonald had pointed out how unlikely this was

In spite of this, Aldous was not in a comfortable frame of mind as they hurried after Joanne She had half an hour's start of thee, and not until they had travelled another half-hour up the rough bed of the break between the two mountains, and MacDonald pointed ahead, and said: ”There's the cavern!” did he breathe easier

They could see the mouth of the cavern when they were yet a couple of hundred yards from it It was a wide, low cleft in the north face of the chas out like the flow of a strea that had been spread out in a space cleared of its chaotic litter of rock and broken slate At first glance Aldous guessed that the cavern had once been the exit of a subterranean stream The sand deadened the sound of their footsteps as they approached At the mouth of the cave they paused It was perhaps forty or fifty feet deep, and as high as a nine-foot rooht Halfway to the back of it, upon her knees, and with her face turned from them, was Joanne

They were very close to her before she heard the to her feet, and Aldous and MacDonald sahat she had been doing

Over a longstake which Donald had planted there forty years before; and about this, and scattered over the grave, were dozens of wild asters and purple hyacinths which Joanne had brought from the plain Aldous did not speak, but he took her hand, and looked doith her on the grave And then so the flowers, and Joanne drew hi like velvet stars, while his heart beat faster when he sahat the object was It was a book, open in the rave It was old, and looked as though it er Joanne's voice was low and filled with a whispering awe