Papa Wolf smoothed Elsa's hair tenderly. "I still think you are a fool, Elschen. But if your mother and I are down here to watch closely--the very first time, sir," he glared at Dick, "that I find--" "You won't have to do anything, Mr. Wolf," said Dick. "I'll cut my throat." "Don't talk silly," exclaimed Papa. "Just try to be a good boy and we'll help. Of course, I think Elsa is a fool but I thought Ernest was one and now look!" The Dean slipped out, unobserved and a moment later Charley whispered to Roger, "Let's get out and let Dick have his chance to clear everything up." And so Roger and Charley found themselves alone, under the stars. "I just can't realize it, at all, can you, Roger dearest?" asked Charley. Roger did not answer for a moment. They were standing beside the corral, looking toward the shadowy mountainside where lay Felicia's grave. "I wish I could believe she saw and knew everything," he said, brokenly. Then as Charley said nothing, he turned and took her in his arms with a sudden passion that found expression in hot kisses and half broken sentences. "Oh, Charley! Charley! After all I'm not a failure. I am--Darling, you do love me, you are sure of that--! How beautiful you are! How beautiful! You are as lovely as the desert. God, Charley, but I'm happy!" Charley, clinging to him speechlessly, finally raised her head, and looked with Roger across the desert night of silence and blue, while the rich sense of space, of mystery, of heaven very near and life's bitternesses far away touched them both at once. And Peter, a wisp of cat's claw hanging from his mouth, rubbed his patient head affectionately against Roger's arm. THE END