devoutly, with an anxious glance at the
two girls.

As his tall, spare figure scrambled on
down the trail, the sufferer raised his
eyes to Pemrose.

"If--if you could t-twist my knapsack
round from under me," he murmured;
"there's a restorative in it--?
a few drops of ammonia'--I'm faint!"

She did so--and turned for the moment
as faint as he was.

The whole trail swam, grew black--black
as the wisp of thin, ebony silk,
parachute silk, with a fraction of a bent
wire frame peeping out from one corner
of that roomy knapsack.

"Well! are you going to desert me
now-ow? ... Now that the thief is so-o
nice-ly bagged!"

The man looked up at her, some dash
of whimsical fire in him mastering weakness
; at the girl kneeling, bolt upright,
with the black rag between her hands,
and the twisted scrap of frame,--the
[[268]]

p267 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p268w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p269

v?