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"Are yu goin' away again?"

"I reckon An', Ellen, y'u're goin' with us"

"I am not," she retorted

"Wal, y'u are, if I have to pack y'u," he replied, forcibly "It's not safe heah anyare on our trail"

That name seemed like a red-hot blade at Ellen's leaden heart She wanted to fling a hundred queries on Colter, but she could not utter one

"Ellen, we've got to hit the trail an' hide," continued Colter, anxiously "Y'u mustn't stay heah alone Suppose them Isbels would trap y'u!They'd tear your clothes off an' rope y'u to a tree Ellen, shore y'u're goin' Y'u heah o," she replied, as if forced

"Wal--that's good," he said, quickly "An' rustle tolerable lively We've got to pack"

The slow jangle of Colter's spurs and his slow stepsoff the blankets, she put her feet to the floor and sat there a ness of the cabin interior in the obscure gray of dawn Cold, gray, dreary, obscure--like her life, her future! And she was compelled to do as hateful to her As a Jorth she must take to the unfrequented trails and hide like a rabbit in the thickets But the interest of the moment, a premonition of events to be, quickened her into action

Ellen unbarred the door to let in the light Day was breaking with an intense, clear, steely light in the east through which thestar still shone white A ruddy flare betokened the advent of the sun Ellen unbraided her tangled hair and brushed and coht of pine needles tangled in her brown locks Then she washed her hands and face Breakfast was a ry

The sun rose and changed the gray world of forest For the first tihtness, the wonderful blue of sky, the screale and the screech of the jay; and the squirrels she had always loved to feed were neglected that

Colter came in Either Ellen had never before looked attentively at hied Her scrutiny of his lean, hard features accorded hiray eyes were as light, as clear, as fierce as those of an eagle And the sand gray of his face, the long, drooping, fair th The instant Ellen aze she sensed a power in him that she instinctively opposed Colter had not been so bold nor so rude as Daggs, but he was the saerous for his secretiveness, his cool, waiting inscrutableness