“From the tenor of your remarks, I judge that you have been away from home for a long time,” he volunteered.

“We have seen something of Asia, Australia, Mexico and the United States since we left Edelweiss, six months ago.  Now we are going home—­home!” She uttered the word so lovingly, so longingly, so tenderly, that he envied the homeland.

There was a long break in the conversation, both evidently wrapped in thought which could not be disturbed by the whirl of the coach.  He was wondering how he could give her up, now that she had been tossed into his keeping so strangely.  She was asking herself over and over again how so thrilling an adventure would end.

They were sore and fatigued with the strain on nerve and flesh.  It was an experience never to be forgotten, this romantic race over the wild mountain road, the result still in doubt.  Ten minutes ago—­strangers; now—­friends at least, neither knowing the other.  She was admiring him for his generalship, his wonderful energy; he was blessing the fate that had come to his rescue when hope was almost dead.  He could scarcely realize that he was awake.  Could it be anything but a vivid fancy from which he was to awaken and find himself alone in his berth, the buzzing, clacking carwheels piercing his ears with sounds so unlike those that had been whispered into them by a voice, sweet and maddening, from out the darkness of a dreamland cab?

“Surely we must be almost at the end of this awful ride,” she moaned, yielding completely to the long suppressed alarm.  “Every bone in my body aches.  What shall we do if they have not held the train?”

“Send for an undertaker,” he replied grimly, seeing policy in jest.  They were now ascending an incline, bumping over boulders, hurtling through treacherous ruts and water-washed holes, rolling, swinging, jerking, crashing.  “You have been brave all along; don’t give up now.  It is almost over.  You’ll soon be with your friends.”

“How can I thank you"’ she cried, gripping his arm once more.  Again his hand dropped upon hers and closed gently.

“I wish that I could do a thousand times as much for you,” he said, thrillingly, her disheveled hair touching his face so close were his lips.  “Ah, the lights of the town!” he cried an instant later.  “Look!”

He held her so that she could peer through the rattling glass window.  Close at hand, higher up the steep, many lights were twinkling ling against tile blackness,

Almost before they realized how near they were to the lights, the horses began to slacken their speed, a moment later coming to a standstill.  The awful ride was over.

“The train! the train!” she cried, in ecstacy.  “Here, on the other side.  Thank heaven!”

He could not speak for the joyful pride that distended his heart almost to bursting.  The coach door flew open, and Light-horse Jerry yelled: