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"Can't see the sights very well," he whispered, shaking his head "Reain he aiid Helen could not take her fascinated eyes off him He knelt, bareheaded, and in the shadow she could leam of his clear-cut profile, stern and cold

A streak of fire and a heavy report startled her Then she heard the bullet hit Shifting her glance, she saw the bear lurch with convulsive action, rearing on his hind legs Loud clicking snaps e But there was no other sound Then again Dale's heavy gun boo lead The bear went doith a flop as if he had been dealt a terrific blow But just as quickly he was up on all-fours and began to whirl with hoarse, savage bawls of agony and fury His action quickly carried hiht into the shadohere he disappeared There the bawls gave place to gnashing snarls, and crashings in the brush, and snapping of branches, as he made his way into the forest

"Sure he'sto his feet "An' I reckon hard hit But I won't follow hiot up, and Helen found she was shaky on her feet and very cold

"Oh-h, wasn't--it--onder-ful!" cried Bo

"Are you scared? Your teeth are chatterin'," queried Dale

"I'ht," he responded "Now the fun's over, you'll feel it Nell, you're froze, too?"

Helen nodded She was, indeed, as cold as she had ever been before But that did not prevent a strange war her veins and a quickened pulse, the cause of which she did not conjecture

"Let's rustle," said Dale, and led the way out of the wood and skirted its edge around to the slope There they cli line of trees to where the horses were tethered

Up here the wind began to blow, not hard through the forest, but still strong and steady out in the open, and bitterly cold Dale helped Bo to mount, and then Helen

"I'm--numb," she said "I'll fall off--sure"

"No You'll be waroin' back Let Ranger pick the way an' you hang on"

With Ranger's first juan to run Out he shot, his lean, dark head beside Dale's horse The wild park lay clear and bright in the rass The patches of timber, like spired black islands in a moon-blanched lake, seemed to harbor shadows, and places for bears to hide, ready to spring out As Helen neared each little grove her pulses shook and her heart beat Half a lorious--the sailing moon, white in a dark-blue sky, the white, passionless stars, so solee of forest-land at oncewith soft, rhyth the ditches and the hollows,up that park the ride had been long; going back was as short as it was thrilling In Helen, experiences gathered realization slowly, and it was this swift ride, the horses neck and neck, and all the wildness and beauty, that completed the slow, insidious work of years The tears of excitement froze on her cheeks and her heart heaved full All that pertained to this night got into her blood It was only to feel, to live now, but it could be understood and remembered forever afterward