The Danger Trail Read Free

ineffable tenderness came into the beautiful eyes so near to his own.
    "That is impossible. You will not love me when you know what I am-what I have done-"
    He stopped her.
    "Have you done wrong-a great wrong?"
    For a moment her eyes faltered; then, hesitatingly, there fell from her lips, "I-don't-know. I believe I have. But it's not that-it's notthat! "
    "Do you mean that-that I have no right to tell you I love you?" he asked. "Do you mean that it is wrong for you to listen to me? I-I-took it for granted that you were a-girl-that-"
    "No, no, it is not that," she cried quickly, catching his meaning. "It is not wrong for you to love me." Suddenly she asked again, "Will you please tell me what time it is-now?"
    He looked again.
    "Twenty-five minutes after midnight."
    "Let us go farther up the trail," she whispered. "I am afraid here."
    She led the way, passing swiftly beyond the path that branched out to his cabin. Two hundred yards beyond this a tree had fallen on the edge of the trail, and seating herself on it Meleese motioned for him to sit down beside her. Howland's back was to the thick bushes behind them. He looked at the girl, but she had turned away her face. Suddenly she sprang from the log and stood in front of him.
    "Now!" she cried. "Now!" and at that signal Howland's arms were seized from behind, and in another instant he was struggling feebly in the grip of powerful arms which had fastened themselves about him like wire cable, and the cry that rose to his lips was throttled by a hand over his mouth. For an instant he caught a glimpse of the girl's white face as she stood in the trail; then strong hands pulled him back, while others bound his wrists and still others held his legs. Everything had passed in a few seconds. Helplessly bound and gagged he lay on his back in the snow, listening to the low voices that came faintly to him from beyond the bushes. He could understand nothing that they said-and yet he was sure that he recognized among them the voice of Meleese.
    The voices became fainter; he heard retreating footsteps, and at last they died away entirely. Through a rift in the trees straight above him the white, cold stars of the night gleamed down on him, and Howland stared up at them fixedly until they seemed to be hopping and dancing about in the skies. He wanted to swear-yell-fight. In these moments that he lay on his back in the freezing snow a million demons were born in his blood. The girl had betrayed him again! This time he could find no excuse-no pardon for her. She had accepted his love-had allowed him to kiss her, to hold her in his arms-while beneath that hypocrisy she had plotted his downfall a second time. Deliberately she had given the signal for attack, and now-
    He heard again the quick, running step that he had recognized on the trail. The bushes behind him parted, and in the white starlight Meleese fell on her knees at his side, her glorious face bending over him in a grief that he had never seen in it before, her eyes shining on him with a great love. Without speaking she lifted his head in the hollow of her arm and crushed her own down against it, kissing him, and softly sobbing his name.
    "Good-by," he heard her breathe. "Good-by-good-by-"
    He struggled to cry out as she lowered his head back on the snow, to free his hands, to hold her with him-but he saw her face only once more, bending over him; felt the warm pressure of her lips to his forehead, and then again he could hear her footsteps hurrying away through the forest.
    * * *
    That Meleese loved him, that she had taken his head in her arms, and had kissed him, was the one consuming thought in Howland's brain for many minutes after she had left him bound and gagged on the snow. That she had made no effort to free him did not at first strike him as significant. He still felt the sweet, warm touch of her lips, the pressure of her arms, the smothering softness of her hair. It was not until he again heard approaching sounds that he