"Don't light it," she said. "It might be seen." Very well! He was on the point of replacing it, but stopped and asked-- "Did you bring one with your horse?" "No!" "Then I had better take it. It will keep you from stumbling when you are riding home. There is a scarf on the sofa." Kate twisted it over her head and they passed out softly into the lane. CHAPTER VI The wind had dropped with the advance of morning, and only an impalpable breath--a faint reminiscence of the wind it seemed--stirring the larch-clumps, dotted here and there along the lower edges of their path, broke the stillness for a moment as they passed. They paused by the side of a watercourse which, descending from Great Gable, the mountain on their left, cut through the track on its way to the centre of the valley and caused a gap of some fifty feet. Stones planted at intervals uncertainly in the stream gave an insecure footing, and afforded the only traverse to the opposite side; and in the darkness their position was dimly shown, or, rather, could be hazily guessed at, by little points of white where the water swirled and broke about them. "I must have crossed it when I came," said Kate, blankly. "But I don't remember. I don't seem to have noticed it at all. I should slip on the stepping-stones now." "Let me carry you over!" "No!" she replied quickly. "I crossed it safely before. I can do the same again." There was a greater confidence in her words than in her voice, and she still hesitated on the brink. Instinctively she laid a hand upon Gordon's sleeve for steadiness, but drew it away hurriedly when she felt the contact of his arm. Her companion renewed his offer of help, but, without answering him, she stepped forward on to the nearest boulder. Her foot, set down timidly, slipped on its polished roundness. Gordon, however, was alert to her fatigue, and his arm was round her waist before she had completely lost her balance. "Lean towards me," he said, and lightly lifted her back on to the bank. She remained for a second in his support, lulled by a physical feeling of security induced in her by the strong clasp of his arm. Then she freed herself almost roughly, and silently faced the stream again. "It will be best if I go first," said Gordon. "I can give you a hand then." "Is there no other crossing?" she asked, straining her gaze vainly up and down the stream. "No! Surely you can take that much help from me." He planted himself as firmly as he could, Colossus-wise on the rocks. "All right!" he said, and stretched out a hand towards her. She took it reluctantly and made a second trial, wavered as she reached the stone on which she had slipped, and secured her balance by tightening her grasp. So they proceeded until a wider interval than usual flowed between their footholds. Gordon turned his head round to her. "You must let go of me here!" "Must I?" "Yes! or I may slip and drag you in."