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Rhoda drew a quick breath She stood staring froain She held out her hands and looked at them They were scratched and brown and did not tre Indian and he never was to forget the light in her eyes
"Kut-le!" she cried "Kut-le! I aain!"
She paced back and forth along the ledge Through the creamy tan her cheeks flushed richly crimson Finally she stopped before the Apache
"You have outraged all my civilized instincts," she said slowly, "yet you have saved iven et that!"
"I have changed more than that," said Kut-le quietly "Where is your old hatred of the desert?"
Rhoda turned to look At the edge of the distant ranges showed a rim of red Crihter, old The sun, hot and scarlet, rolled into view Into Rhoda's heart flooded a sense of infinite splendor, infinite beauty, infinite peace
"Why!" she gasped to Kut-le, "it is beautiful! It's not terrible! It's unadorned beauty!"
The Indian nodded but did not speak Rhoda never was to forget that day Long years after she was to catch the afterglow of that day of her rebirth Suddenly she realized that never could a hu more marvelous The realization was alrateful, did not talk to her ht him a drink and mechanically smoothed his blanket he said softly: "You who have been served and demanded service all your life, why do you do this?"
Rhoda answered slowly
"I' to pay up some of the debt of my life"
Kut-le was about in a day or so and by the end of the week he was quite himself He resumed the daily expeditions with Rhoda and Alchise which provided text for the girl's desert learning Rhoda's old despondency, her old agony of prayer for ie conflict of desires She was eager for rescue, was conscious of a constant aching desire for her own people, and yet the old sense of outrage, of grief, of hopelessness was gone
Of a sudden she found herself pausing, thrusting back the problee mad joy of life which she felt must leave her when she left the desert She knew only that the fear of death was gone That hours of fever and pain were no more That her mind had found its old poise but with an utterly ne-point of life Her blood ran red Her lungs breathed deep Her eyes saw distances too big for their conception, beauties so deep that her spirit had to expand to absorb them