The girl did not pause, but continued to run lightly and with surprising speed, heeding only the direction which he gave her.  Her endurance amazed him.  And he knew that without questioning him she had guessed the truth of what lay behind them.  Then, all at once, she stopped, swayed like a reed, and would have fallen if his arms had not caught her.

“Splendid!” he cried.

She lay gasping for breath, her face against his breast.  Her heart was a swiftly beating little dynamo.

They had gained the edge of a shallow ravine that reached within half a mile of the kloof.  It was this shelter he had hoped for, and Mary’s splendid courage had won it for them.

He picked her up in his arms and carried her again, as he had carried her through the nigger-head bottom.  Every minute, every foot of progress, counted now.  Range of vision was widening.  Pools of sunlight were flecking the plains.  In another quarter of an hour moving objects would be distinctly visible a mile away.

With his precious burden in his arms, her lips so near that he could feel their breath, her heart throbbing, he became suddenly conscious of the incongruity of the bird-song that was wakening all about them.  It seemed inconceivable that this day, glorious in its freshness, and welcomed by the glad voice of all living things, should be a day of tragedy, of horror, and of impending doom for him.  He wanted to shout out his protest and say that it was all a lie, and it seemed absurd that he should handicap himself with the weight and inconvenient bulk of his rifle when his arms wanted to hold only that softer treasure which they bore.

In a little while Mary was traveling at his side again.  And from then on he climbed at intervals to the higher swellings of the gully edge and scanned the tundra.  Twice he saw men, and from their movements he concluded their enemies believed they were hidden somewhere on the tundra not far from the range-houses.

Three-quarters of an hour later they came to the end of the shallow ravine, and half a mile of level plain lay between them and the kloof.  For a space they rested, and in this interval Mary smoothed her long hair and plaited it in two braids.  In these moments Alan encouraged her, but he did not lie.  He told her the half-mile of tundra was their greatest hazard, and described the risks they would run.  Carefully he explained what she was to do under certain circumstances.  There was scarcely a chance they could cross it unobserved, but they might be so far ahead of the searchers that they could beat them out to the kloof.  If enemies appeared between them and the kloof, it would be necessary to find a dip or shelter of rock, and fight; and if pursuers from behind succeeded in out-stripping them in the race, she was to continue in the direction of the kloof as fast as she could go, while he followed more slowly, holding Graham’s men back with his rifle until she reached the edge of the gorge.  After that he would come to her as swiftly as he could run.