had carried them beyond its greatest menace, another had delivered them
from actual peril, leaving them on ground where filmy grass, dead
leaves, dry needles, had blazed quickly, with a consuming flash, and,
utterly and almost instantly destroyed, had left behind them only thin,
hot ash, devoid of peril, scarce to be considered.

But he did not let her feet touch ground again until they were even
beyond this. Finally, when they reached a rocky "barren," where the
little fire had found no fuel, she felt his tautened thews relax.

Instantly she slipped from his encircling arms, and he began to whip the
flames in grass and little brush close to them with the dampened skirt.
Even on the little isle of safety they found it necessary, still, to
agilely avoid innumerable bits of floating "light-wood" brands, and, for
a time, to beat, beat at the hungry little flames around them, but, at
last, the danger was all over, and they stood there, looking at each
other, with a sense of great relief. He smiled, breathing hard, but not
exhausted.

"Tight work, eh?" he said cheerfully.

"Jest _wonderful_!" she answered, with a ready tribute.

Then the memory of his embracing arm, the fact that her own arms had
been as tightly clasped about his neck, came to her with a rush,
although, while they had raced across the burning strip she had not
thought of these things. Shyness stirred in her almost as definitely as
it had while she lay hidden at the pool's mouth, watching him and
tingling with shamed thrills at thought of her amazing plight there. No
man had ever had his arms about her in her life before.