"
And each time he assured her that it was.
"I have been thinking that it was Nisikoos who sent to her that picture
you wanted to destroy," he said once. "Nisikoos must have known."
"Then why didn't she tell me?" she flashed.
"Because, it may be that she didn't want to lose you--and that she
didn't send the picture until she knew that she was not going to live
very long."
The girl's eyes darkened, and then--slowly--there came back the softer
glow into them.
"I loved--Nisikoos," she said.
It was sunset when they began making their first camp in a cedar
thicket, where David shot a porcupine for Tara and Baree. After their
supper they sat for a while in the glow of the stars, and after that
Marge snuggled down in her cedar bed and went to sleep. But before she
closed her eyes she put her arms about his neck and kissed him
good-night. For a long time after that he sat awake, thinking of the
wonderful dream he had dreamed all his life, and which at last had come
true.
* * * * *
Day after day they travelled steadily into the east and south. The
mountains swallowed them, and their feet trod the grass of many strange
valleys. Strange--and yet now and then David saw something he had seen
once before, and he knew that he had not lost the trail.
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