lifted Nellie in his arms to carry her to the hidden spring. If any
recollection of it crossed his mind at that moment, it was only shown in
his redoubled energy. He did not glide through the thick underbrush, as
on that day, but seemed to take a savage pleasure in breaking through it
with sheer brute force. Once Teresa insisted upon relieving him of
the burden of her weight, but after a few steps she staggered blindly
against him, and would fain have recourse once more to his strong arms.
And so, alternately staggering, bending, crouching, or bounding and
crashing on, but always in one direction, they burst through the jealous
rampart, and came upon the sylvan haunt of the hidden spring. The
great angle of the half-fallen tree acted as a harrier to the wind and
drifting smoke, and the cool spring sparkled and bubbled in the almost
translucent air. He laid her down beside the water, and bathed her
face and hands. As he did so his quick eye caught sight of a woman's
handkerchief lying at the foot of the disrupted root. Dropping Teresa's
hand, he walked towards it, and with the toe of his moccasin gave it one
vigorous kick into the ooze at the overflow of the spring. He turned to
Teresa, but she evidently had not noticed the act.

"Where are you?" she asked, with a smile.

Something in her movement struck him! He came towards her, and bending
down looked into her face. "Teresa! Good God!--look at me! What has
happened?"

She raised her eyes to his. There was a slight film across them; the
lids were blackened; the beautiful lashes gone forever!

"I see you a little now, I think," she said, with a smile, passing her
hands vaguely over his face. "It must have happened when he fainted, and