When the party from Marchton arrived at the Bouchard cottage and found Gale again missing it was another bitter blow on top of all the others they had suffered. They listened to all that FranÇois and Antoinette could tell them. Then they organized a searching party. Mr. Howard, the doctor and Antoinette started off in the direction Gale had taken yesterday afternoon when she left. Brent and Phyllis started off to test Phyllis’ suggestion that from the top of the mountain and through FranÇois’ powerful field glasses they might be able to find some sign of Gale on the countryside. Mrs. Howard remained with FranÇois.

When they had gone a very short distance from the cottage Brent espied a tiny figure atop the mountain Antoinette had called Lonesome Man. He pointed to it and Phyllis gripped his arm tightly while she waved with her other hand.

“Gale!” Phyllis whispered when the figure had returned her salute.

“Come on,” Brent said and was off, running lightly, Phyllis keeping pace with him.

“She is climbing down,” Phyllis said as they halted momentarily, watching the figure on the cliff in the distance.

“That’s dangerous,” Brent muttered, “the surface is icy, you can see it glisten in the sun.”

When they ran out into the clearing at the base of Lonesome Man, Gale was just beginning her trip to rescue Toto.

“Gale! Go back!” Phyllis cried, but her voice did not carry to her friend. “She can’t go out there!” Phyllis said wildly to Brent.

Brent started forward but a second later Phyllis stopped him.

“Wait,” she said. “Look!”

Gale had worked herself half way out on the ledge.

“Don’t go now—you will frighten her and she will fall.”

The two watched breathlessly. Their eyes never once wavered from the figure of the girl above them as she worked her way out on the ice covered ledge to where a little ball of fur crouched in terror. They gasped when once her foot slipped and she was prostrated flat on the ice.

“Ooo, I can’t look!” Phyllis whispered frantically, but just the same she watched Gale fascinatedly.

When Gale had Toto secure in her arm the two spectators let out a sigh of thankfulness but they were too soon. Gale had no more than started the perilous return journey to the rock when a warning crack was heard. They saw her give one horrified glance at the icy floor beneath her.

When the ledge snapped off with a grinding crack Gale, with Toto clasped in her arms, was hurled into space. Phyllis screamed, Brent started forward on a run. There was danger to Gale not only from her fall but from the rock that also fell. If she should be crushed under any of those jagged edges——

Brent reached the scene first. Toto was scrambling from the snow. Phyllis appeared then and together they pulled Gale from the snow.

“Is she killed?” Phyllis asked tremulously.

“No,” Brent said finally. “I’ll carry her, you run ahead.”

Phyllis swept Toto up into her arms and darted off.

Gale looked up at the ceiling and knit her brows in perplexity. Where was she? The last thing she remembered she was in the seat behind Brent in his black and silver monoplane and they were turning over and over about to crash in the storm. She looked at the rough log-hewn walls, at the moonlight streaming in through the little window and brought her gaze back to the ceiling. No, no, the plane wasn’t the last thing. Slowly, like a moving picture coming into focus, her mind’s eye picked up the pictures of the weeks past. Now she remembered everything! The fall from the ledge of rock, the shock she had suffered, had restored suddenly everything that had been a blank before.

She became aware of someone sitting on the floor beside the bed. All she could see was the top of a light curly head but even that was familiar.

“Hullo, Phyl,” she said.

Instantly Phyllis looked up. “Gale!”

“How long have you been sitting there?” Gale demanded smiling.

“Since—since—not very long,” Phyllis replied. “You do—you do remember me?” she asked gently.

“Of course,” Gale said. “But why—oh, I know! You heard that I couldn’t remember anything. That I didn’t know——”

Phyllis nodded. “Brent told us.”

That was the beginning of a talk that lasted a long time, before either of them thought of the other people in the main room of the cottage.

“We’ve been here since this morning,” Phyllis explained when she stood up. “We flew up last night. Your parents, Dr. Miller, and Brent and I. Antoinette is an angel! This morning when you were missing was almost as bad as—when the plane crashed. Then when Brent and I saw you fall from the ledge—my heart nearly stopped!”

“It was sweet of you to come all the way up here, Phyl,” Gale said, “to help me.”

Phyllis colored uncomfortably. “I’ll tell the others you are awake. We’ve been worried all day.”

When Phyllis had departed Gale had but a moment to reminisce over all the days she had been here and to grasp the fact now of what her mysterious disappearance and subsequent hiding must have meant to those in Marchton. She regretted every moment of anxiety she had caused them and vowed to make it up; then the others came in and there was the happiest joy of reunion.

Later, much, much later, when the others forced themselves to leave in order to let Gale sleep and regain her strength to travel back to Marchton on the morrow, her miraculous escape from serious injury in both the airplane crash and her fall this morning was still a wonder to them.

Brent, the last to enter, and the last to leave, took her hand in his and squeezed it.

“I’ll bet you’ll never go flying with me again,” he said ruefully.

“Try me,” she laughed.

“Anyway, I’m glad to see you all right again, kiddo,” he said with a wide smile.

Gale sat up. “You weren’t hurt much then,” she murmured thankfully.

“No. But you gave us plenty to think about. We were worried to death about you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think you would worry so much.”

“Worry? Oh, my dear——” He checked himself and grinned. “Go to sleep, youngster. Tomorrow we go back to Marchton.” He looked down at her for a long time. “Good night,” he said finally and kissed the top of her head. Hastily he made his way out.

Gale lay and let little shivers run up and down her back. She was so comfortable and warm, so supremely happy, she let her dreams run riot. Tomorrow she would be home again, safe and among friends. But she had been among friends here, too. It would be hard to leave Antoinette and FranÇois and—Toto. If the little dog hadn’t crawled out on that ledge this morning, if she hadn’t gone after him and if the ice hadn’t crumpled she might still be living in the shadows she had lived in for the past weeks. She still might not know who she was.

She sat up and looked out the window. In the distance Lonesome Man was brilliantly alight with moonlight but now he was a man without a nose. She smiled slightly. She had forever ruined the facial beauty of Lonesome Man but it had brought her happiness.

She stretched luxuriously and snuggled down again between the blankets. Cautiously the door opened and Antoinette looked in.

“Antoinette!” Gale said, stretching out her hand.

“You are well again, Gale,” Antoinette said, almost sadly. “I am glad. But now you will leave us——”

“Tomorrow,” Gale nodded. “I can never thank you enough, Antoinette, for all you have done——”

“It was nothing,” the French girl said confusedly. “You were like a sister.”

“You will come to the States to see me?” Gale pleaded. The subject had been mentioned earlier when the others had been present and Antoinette had flushed with pleasure at the invitation.

“But of course, I shall be most happy,” she declared.

When Antoinette had gone again Gale turned contentedly on her pillows. She had had a most exciting time but now her difficulties were over. Tomorrow she would fly back to Marchton. School would begin for her again, gay times with her friends, a sheltered life in the little town. Except for a slight headache she had no reminder at all of the long time through which she had just come. Again she sighed with pleasure. Another thing that made her happy—Brent was going home with them!