Page:Edison Marshall--Shepherds of the wild.djvu/261

Rh "Way round," he ordered the dog, and the girl helped him keep the control of the animals until he had started to turn them. And just for a moment he took her hands, two little, hard brown hands that were clasped about his heart.

"Good-by, Alice," he said quietly. "Don't blame me for staying—and forgive me. All my life has been wasted, and now I've got a chance to pay the debt. You don't know what it means "

But yet she understood this personal reason too. His manhood was at the test; and even if he should fall, at last, victim to those hungry flames, his life would have been vindicated—beyond all the powers of Destiny to accuse him. He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them again and again.

"Maybe there won't be time to put my petitions to the queen," he told her soberly. "But I want you to know what they were to be. I love you, Alice. Never doubt it—never forget it. And it's my right—to tell you at last."

"And I love you, Hugh," she answered clearly. He heard her without exultation, rather only with a great and inward peace, as if this were his ordained fate, his destiny fulfilled. He swung toward her, their lips met. And she rode away toward the advancing wall of flame.