“I don’t blame you for feeling that way, Jude, but surely you can see that this is no way to go.”

Judith set her fine jaw firmly.  Finally she said, “Where did you pick up my trail?”

“Where you left the stage road.  Jude, did you know that old Johnny gave Dad a nasty one above the knee?”

“No!  Old Johnny came to my rescue, but I didn’t think he could hit a canyon wall.  Good old Johnny!  What became of him?”

Douglas moistened his lips.  “He followed my father to the half-way house.  Dad was all in.  Couldn’t even build himself a fire.  Johnny wouldn’t do a thing for him.  He went outside and sat down on the doorstep with my shot-gun across his knees; every time Dad yelled at him he said he was saving Jude for Douglas.  The last of the afternoon Peter and I came up and found old Johnny there.”

“Good old Johnny!” said Judith again.

Douglas nodded, hesitated, then said.  “He was asleep and we couldn’t wake him up.”

Judith’s eyes suddenly filled with horror.  “You couldn’t wake him up?  You mean—­”

Again Douglas nodded.  “He was gone, poor old Johnny.  For you and me.  I came on after you, alone.”

Judith twisted her hands together.  “But dead, Doug!  And in such a simple way!  O the poor little old chap!  I can’t forgive myself, Douglas!”

“It’s the way he’d like to have gone.  You are not to blame.”

“O, yes, I am.  I should have stopped and sent him home.  But I was beside myself, Doug,—­O, you don’t know! you can’t know!”

“You’re not to blame yourself about Johnny, I tell you.”

“Now I never do want to go back!  You’ll just have to grub-stake me, Doug.  Please!”

Douglas pushed his hair back from his forehead.  If only she would not plead with him!  She never had done that.  He did not believe that he could stand out against it.

“You mustn’t think of going on alone, Jude,” he said.

“Then you come as far as Bowdins’ with me and get rested up for your trip back.”

“I want you to come back with me,” repeated Doug.

“No!” said Judith.  “I’m never going back to Lost Chief!”

“Then come as far as the Mormon’s.  Get rested and get some clothes together and I’ll take you out to Mountain City, and I’ll loan you enough money to live on while you get a job, or I’ll put you through college.  Either you want.  You’ve done a great stunt, Judith, crossing Black Devil in winter.  But putting over a stunt isn’t necessarily acting with judgment.”

“How could I act with judgment, under the circumstances?” demanded Judith.

Douglas looked at her with passionate earnestness.

“Judith,” he said, “you must believe that I’m not criticizing you.  I’m just trying to help you do the wise thing.”

“Why can’t I go on across the Basin and get the A.B. railroad at Doty’s?” asked Judith.

Douglas looked down the terrible mountainside.  “We aren’t equipped for it, Jude.”