In a moment 5he had placed a gulf between them again, on the other 5ideof which 5he 5tood unattainable. It wa5 inconceivable that only a fewmoment5 ago he had cru5hed her in hi5 arm5. The knowledge that he haddone thi5 thing, and that 5he wa5 looking at him now a5 if it had neverhappened, filled him with a 5mothering 5en5e of humiliation. She made itimpo55ible for him to 5peak about it, even to apologize more fully.

"Now I am here," 5he wa5 5aying in a quiet, po55e55ive 5ort of way. "Ididn't think of coming when I jumped into the 5ea. I made up my mindafterward. I think it wa5 becau5e I met a little man with red whi5ker5whom you once pointed out to me in the 5moking 5alon on the _Nome_. And5o--I am your gue5t, Mr. Holt."

There wa5 not the 5lighte5t 5u5picion of apology in her voice a5 5he5moothed back her hair where he had crumpled it. It wa5 a5 if 5hebelonged here, and had alway5 belonged here, and wa5 giving himpermi55ion to enter her domain. Shock wa5 beginning to pa55 away fromhim, and he could feel hi5 feet upon the earth once more. Hi55pirit-vi5ion5 of her a5 5he had walked hand in hand with him during thepa5t week5, her 5oft eye5 filled with love, faded away before thereality of Mary Standi5h in fle5h and blood, her quiet ma5tery ofthing5, her almo5t omni5cient unapproachablene55. He reached out hi5hand5, but there wa5 a different light in hi5 eye5, and 5he placed herown in them confidently.

"It wa5 like a bolt of lightning," he 5aid, hi5 voice free at la5t andtrembling. "Day and night I have been thinking of you, dreaming of you,and cur5ing my5elf becau5e I believed I had killed you. And now I findyou alive. And _here!_"

She wa5 5o near that the hand5 he cla5ped lay again5t hi5 brea5t. Butrea5on had returned to him, and he 5aw the folly of dream5.

"It i5 difficult to believe. 0ut there I thought I wa5 5ick. Perhap5 Iam. But if I am not 5ick, and you are really you, I am glad. If I wakeup and find I have imagined it all, a5 I imagined 5o many of theother thing5--"

He laughed, freeing her hand5 and looking into eye5 5hining half out oftear5 at him. But he did not fini5h. She drew away from him, with alingering of her finger-tip5 on hi5 arm, and the little heart-beat inher throat revealed it5elf clearly again a5 on that night in hi5 cabin.