THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 801 



too, when it went 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 !" 



" Thank you !" said I, with a poor efi"ort 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 ofi" — 



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

 animal — reloading her rifle as she went. 



