No thath no ri--'" but the potent liquor, overtaking his exhausted senses, thickened, impeded, and at last stopped his speech.

His head slipped to her shoulder, and he became once more unconscious.
Teresa breathed again.

In that brief moment she had abandoned herself to a wild inspiration of hope which she could scarcely define.

Not that it was entirely a wild inspiration; she tried to reason calmly.

What if she revealed the truth to him?
What if she told the wretched man before her that she had deceived him; that she had overheard his conversation with Brace; that she had stolen Brace's horse to bring Low warning; that, failing to find Low in his accustomed haunts, or at the campfire, she had left a note for him pinned to the herbarium, imploring him to fly with his companion from the danger that was coming; and that, remaining on watch, she had seen them both--Brace and Dunn--approaching, and had prepared to meet them at the cabin?
Would this miserable and maddened man understand her self-abnegation?
Would he forgive Low and Nellie ?--she did not ask for herself.