THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 301 



too, when it vent by. I could almost judge with certainty 

 * whence it cometh or whither it goeth !' Not a starved and 

 bitter shrub, but its fingers pointed a significance or showed 

 something on one side of the discolored bark either the 

 direction of the nearest water, or of the prevailing wind 

 not an antelope that darted past but would have led me the 

 way to some Oasis !" She paused suddenly. 



" That a man should utter such thought would not surprise 

 me so much" said I, hastily. " But that a woman should " 



"A woman should!" she interrupted. "Give a woman 

 something to love and something to venerate an idea to 

 achieve and what will she not accomplish ! Now you show 

 yourself a child again !" 



" You make woman in yourself more infallible than man 

 pretends to be, even in his proper and peculiar field !" 



" Young man I understand you ! I could possibly get 

 lost as easily as some men but I could not get scared 1" 



" Thank you !" said I, with a poor effort at the magnani- 

 mous. But she went on without noticing. 



" I should not have been flurried out of my common sense, 

 and lost all the chance I had for getting out of the scrape 

 if I am a woman. There is too much yet to be accomplished 

 to justify any one in throwing away a life. Mankind has yet 

 to be redeemed. The world needs all its laborers !" 



Here is the key-note to this strange anomaly I thought ! 

 /'You will not do much to redeem it out here !" I ventured 

 to hint. 



She turned her head abruptly, merely muttering 



"You will know more some time !" and, as at the moment, 

 a herd of deer, which had been lying down in the grass within 

 range, sprang up from a low piece of the ground her rifle 

 was at her shoulder in an instant. A deer bounded into the 

 air, and merely saying as she turned off 



"Wait for me!" she proceeded to cut the throat of the 

 animal reloading her rifle as she went. 



