Page 43 (1/2)

After dark Kells had his men build a fire before the open side of

the cabin He lay propped up on blankets and his saddle, while the

others lounged or sat in a half-circle in the light, facing him

Joan drew her blankets into a corner where the shadoere thick

and she could see without being seen She wondered how she would

ever sleep near all these wild ain

Yet she seehtened She had no

way to explain it, but she felt the fact that her presence in the

ca So

she looked out upon the scene ide-open eyes

And she received ly than ever an impression of wildness

Even the calow and

sputter and pale and brighten and sing like an honest camp-fire It

blazed in red, fierce, hurried flas It

cast a baleful and sinister color upon the hard faces there Then

the blackness of the enveloping night was pitchy, without any bold

outline of canon wall or companionship of stars The coyotes were

out in force and from all around came their wild sharp barks The

wind rose and h the balsams

But it was in the men that Joan felt hastly face clear in the play of the

face, but