He looked her full in the face for a moment before she understood. "No!" she cried in anguish; "you shall not!" "It is best," he said. "I am hurt--even past your healing--it is better than--the torture--and--and--if you are followed, you must do the same. Promise me you will!" "I promise," she answered, but she hardly knew her own voice. "They were--in the north," he went on. "To the southward--all is clear. If it were not for me--you would go." He fumbled around in the sand until he found the pistol and loaded it once more, though his hands shook. Beatrice tried to take it from him, but very gently he put her away. "It is time," he breathed. "Taps have sounded for me. I said I would not--not speak of it again--but you--you will grant me pardon--I love you--so much that death will make--no difference--I love you--with all--my soul!" With a trembling hand he put the muzzle against his right temple, and looked up into her face with the ghost of a smile. His eyes asked mutely for something more. Then Beatrice bent over him, and the kiss for which he had vainly pleaded was laid full upon his lips. He caught his breath quickly, with a gasp of pain. "God is very good to me," he said unsteadily. "It was in my dream--but I did not dare--and now--Heart's Desire--good-bye!" He closed his eyes. There was a sharp crack, a puff of smoke, and the boy was dead; but the supreme exaltation of a man's soul was frozen in his face. * * * * * For a long time Beatrice sat there, sobbing helplessly, with his cold hand in hers. It was nine o'clock when they started, and now the sun blazed at the zenith. Mrs. Mackenzie and the children were nowhere in sight--the boat was gone. Beatrice was as absolutely alone as if she had been in a desert. "Oh, if it were dark!" she thought, and then she prayed, in a shrill whisper: "Dear God, make it dark now!" She felt her reason slipping from her and knew that she must get away. Blinded by her tears, she climbed to the top of the sand hill once more, and saw, dimly, that the coast was clear. A few Indians still moved about among the dead, but there was no firing, and the garrison horses, riderless and blood-spattered, stood quietly here and there, apparently heedless of the burning heat. With the start she had, she was sure she could get away safely. Once on the trail, and then---- She saw that saddle and bridle were right in every detail, and mounted. "For life," she whispered to the horse; "for your life and mine!" She cautiously guided Queen in and out among the sand hills until she came to the open prairie. Before her lay the trail and hovering beyond it in her distorted vision, like a mirage glimmering in the desert, she saw the flag flying from the ramparts of Fort Wayne. "Now then, Beauty--fly!"