“Where is this?” he whispered; then aloud, “Oh, it is the trail of the wolves! After them will come the she-wolf, and her fangs----” He dropped his parcel and clutched his breast. “Her fangs!” he gasped. He looked about and picked up a stick, which he swung as a club about him. “The she-wolf is here!” he cried. His glance fell upon his companion, standing in awe and pity and love before him. Instantly a fearful malignity hardened his face, and his eyes blazed with the murder that had filled them once before. He clutched the stick more fiercely, and glared at her with a mixture of terror and ferocity. But she stood firm, and gently said,-- “My friend!” His face instantly softened. She stood smiling, her glance caressing, her whole bearing bespeaking sympathy and affection. “My dear friend,” she said, in a voice whose sweetness sank deep within him, “you know me!” A look of joyous recognition swept over his face. “I am so glad!” he breathlessly said. “I thought you had left me alone!” Saying this, he sank to the ground, smiling upon her as he fell. She knelt beside him, placed a soothing hand upon his cheek, and spoke comforting words. His face showed the profound gratification that filled him, and her soul spread its wings in the sunshine that filled the day with its glories. He lay limp and helpless, but she knew that he must be going forward if he could. She caressed him, she coaxed him, she raised him to a sitting posture, she put her arms under his and lifted him to his feet; but his breathing was short and distressed, his head rolled listlessly, and his legs refused their offices. Then she realized that the last remnant of his strength, both of body and spirit, was gone; and her heart sank to the uttermost depths. “Lay me down,” he said, very gently, but clearly, and with perfect resignation. “Lay me down, my friend, and go on alone. I am very tired, and must sleep. Keep to the road. I don’t think it is far to the nearest house. You are sure to find some one. Be brave and keep on.” She laid him down and turned away. A cruel choking had throttled her power of speech. With tears so streaming from her eyes that she went about her purpose half blind, she found a drier place in the road, gathered pine-needles less soaked than the rest, made a bed for him there, and spread upon it the blankets that he had been carrying. When she looked again into his face he was sleeping lightly, and his breathing betrayed great physical distress. As gently as a mother lifting her sleeping babe, she took him up in her arms, bore him to the bed, and with infinite care and tenderness laid him upon it. Then with some twigs and handkerchiefs she fashioned a canopy that shielded his head from the sun. She covered him with a free part of the blanket; but fearing that it would prove insufficient, she removed her outer skirt and covered him with that; these covers she tucked about him, that he might not easily throw them off.