.

"I'll STAY--ALWAYS".
For a long time Thurston lay with wide-open eyes staring up at nothing, listening to the rain and thinking.

By and by the rain ceased and he could tell by the dim whiteness of the tent roof that the clouds must have been swept away from before the moon, then just past the full.
He got up carefully so as not to disturb the others, and crept over two or three sleeping forms on his way to the opening, untied the flap and went out.

The whole hilltop and the valley below were bathed in mellow radiance.

He studied critically the wide sweep of the river.