After all, she reflected forlornly, it would not matter very much to anyone if she did die.

She stood or fell alone.
Thought became vague at last and finally obscured in the mists of sleep.

She lay still on the narrow bed and slept long and deeply.
It must have been after several hours that her dream came to her.
It arose out of a sea of oblivion--a vision unsummoned, wholly unexpected.

She saw Burke Ranger galloping along the side of a dry and stony ravine where doubtless water flowed in torrents when the rain came.

He was bending low in the saddle, his dark face set forward scanning the path ahead.