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Rhoda was so confused that for a moment she could only ease herself to the pony's swift canter and wonder if her encounter with DeWitt had been but a dream after all A short distance from the pueblo Kut-le rode in beside her It was very dark, with the heavy blackness that just precedes the dawn, but Rhoda felt that the Indian was looking at her exultingly

"It seeet Alchise and Injun Tom moved to a friend's campos so that I could overtake you I will say that that fellow Porter is game to the finish It took me an hour to subdue him! Now, don't worry about the two of them With a little work they can loose themselves and help each other to safety I saman's trail ten miles or so over beyond the pueblo o to pick hihed hysterically

"No wonder you have such a hold on your Indians! You seeenuity!"

Kut-le chuckled

"What a jolt DeWitt will find when he coloat over the situation, Kut-le!" exclai in her conflict of e I say," returned the young Indian "I aain! Are you really sorry to be with ain? Did DeWitt mean asto me!"

"O Kut-le," cried Rhoda, "I can't! I can't! You est person that I know! Can't you put yourself in my place and realize what a horrible position I auess I can realize it But the end is so great, sobefore that ood--the lift of the horse under your knees--the air rushing past your face--the weave and twist of the trail--don't they speak to you and doesn't your heart answer?"

"Yes," answered Rhoda si now, and with a gasp Rhoda sahat she had been too agonized to heed on the terrace in the ain! He wore the khaki suit, the high-laced riding boots of the ranch days; and he wore therace, the debonair ease that had so char Cartwell That little sense of his difference that his Indian nakedness had kept in Rhoda's subconsciousness disappeared She stared at his broad, graceful shoulders, at the fine outline of his head which still was bare, and she knew that her decision was going to be indescribably difficult to keep Kut-le watched the wistful gray eyes tenderly, as if he realized the depth of anguish behind their wistfulness; yet he watched none the less resolutely, as if he had no qualaze, caught the depth and splendor of his eyes And that wordless joy of life whose thrill had touched her the first tih her veins once more He was the youth, the splendor, the vivid wholesomeness of the desert! He was the heart itself, of the desert