cogs of steel. Then he stiffened and fell prone across me, a dead,
inert weight, pinning me breathless to the floor.

For the moment I could do no more than lie there helpless, gasping for
breath, scarce conscious even of my deliverance. Then, as sufficient
strength returned for action, I rolled the body of the dead brute off
me, and lifting myself by aid of the wall against which my head rested,
looked about. Two broken chairs overturned upon the floor, and the
shapeless, huddled body of my late assailant, alone spoke of the
violence of that deadly struggle; but the cabin was yet full of smoke,
and I could perceive the figure of the girl leaning against the frame
of the open door, the revolver still grasped in her hand. Her posture
was that of a frightened deer, as her terror-filled eyes sought the
dark interior.

"It is safely over," I said weakly, for my breath yet came to me in
gasps. "The brute is dead."

"And you are not killed!" Shall I ever forget the glad ring in her
voice?--"Oh, thank God! thank God!"

The sound of these eager words yielded me a fresh measure of life.

"Believe me, I certainly do," I said as cheerfully as possible, "and I
thank you also as His instrument; but if you would keep me from
fainting away like a nerveless woman, I beg you come here."

I could mark her coming across the narrow streak of moonlight, moving
toward me as a frightened bird might, startled at everything, and
passing as far from the lifeless mass on the floor as the small space