Northern Lights

with the world to-day! It'

above and away, the fir-covered, cedar-ranged foothills, and, lower down, the wonderful maple and ash woods, with their hundred autumn tints, all merging to one soft, red tone, the roar of th

ouched it with a moistened finger to test the heat, and, leaning above the table again, passed it over the linen for a few moments, smiling at so

's enough to know." She blushed a little, as though some one had heard her words and was looking at her, then she carefull

was clear, and the sun was clarifying; and little ornamented or frilled as it was, the pett

. A flock of pigeons passed with a whir not far away, and skirted the woods making down the valley. She watched their flight abstractedly, yet with a subconscious sense of

took a step forward. Her brain became confused and disturbed. She had looked out on Eden, and it had been ravaged before her eyes. She had been thinking of to-morrow, and th

its grace despoiled. She turned back to the room where the white p

r her to turn round. He was haggard and travel-stained, and there was a feverish light in his eyes. His fin

, but they're after me, some ranchers and a constable-one o' the Riders of the Pl

potentialities of a foe, while the door of hospitality is opened to him after the custom of the wilds. Year in, year out, since she was a little girl and came to live here with her Uncle Sanger when her father died-her mother had gone before she could speak-travellers had halted at this door, going North or coming South, had had bite and sup

her. Whatever he had done, it was noth

swered. "What have you done?

OT ME AN

her horse up at Clancey's, and at Scotton's Drive, but they didn't know me, and they bounced me. So I borrowed a horse off Weigall's paddock, to make for here-to you. I didn't mean to keep that horse. Hell, I'm no horse-stealer! But I c

at his side and that his wris

it up or wash it for you? I've got plenty of hot

there's no telling when they'll drop onto the game, and come back for me. My only chance was to git to you. Even if I had a horse, I couldn't make Bindon in time.

" she asked

cuts off fifty mile. Th

nd her glance fell on his arm nervously. "What've

or stay with him. He was good-Lord, but he was good!-to my little gal years back. She'd only been married to me a year when he saved her, riskin' his own life. No one else had the pluck. My little gal, only twenty she was, an' pretty as a picture, an' me fifty miles away when t

she had done it in safety many times. Not in all the West and North were there a half dozen people who could take a canoe to Bindon, and they were not here. She knew that he meant to ask her to paddle him down the swift stream,

?" she asked, har

to Jenny Long, an' tell her about my friend at Bindon, an' my little gal, she'll take me down to Bindon in time.' My little gal would have paid her own debt if she'd ever had the chance.

the man at Bindon? To-morrow was to be the great day in her own life. The one man in all the world was coming to marry her to-morrow. After f

your friend lose his life

him free. He told me of what was to be done at Bindon. There'd been a strike in the mine, an' my friend had took it in hand with knuckle-dusters on. He isn't the kind to fell a tree with a jack-knife. Then three of the str

m that she was to marry-was the head of a mine also at Selby, forty miles bey

s so good to my little gal, an' me with a chance to save him, an' others

in a chair. Presently he opened his eyes. "It's want o' food, I suppo

gain. Her ears had caught a sound outside in the underbr

and I'll bring you vittles as quick as I can," she added. Then she shut the door, turned

he man said, stepping inside, with a rifle

ient, scrutinizing glance. His f

erking her head toward the two birds, which she had

, and I was tired. I ain't so young as I used to be, and, anyhow, what's the good? What's ahead of me? You're going to git married to-morrow after all these years we b

live there. You'll be

want to breathe. I've got my shack here, I got my fur business, and they're still fond of whiskey up North!" He chuckled to himself, as he thought of the illicit still farther

any to-morrow, as you ex

t off at the last moment, same as before? You ain't had a letter from Jake?" He lo

n, and there was no good writing, when he was coming to-morrow with the minister and the license. Who

t her to marry and leave him, but he wanted no more troubles; he did not relish being asked

row," she said, at last, "and that's by you taking

ons on the floor, d

rther. Jenny had not always been easy to under

ced at the bedroom door, where her exhausted visitor had stret

ady for you in there," she sai

ies of his earlier achievements with gun and rifle, and sat down

s he lifted the cloth and saw the palatable dish ready for him.

? What's that about my cano

or his words about her care of him had brought a moisture to h

a kind of sinking." He took from his pocket a bottle, pou

tered the other room again. Going to the cupboard, she hastily heaped a plate with food, and, taking a dipper of water from a pail

ak, but she made a

you anything y

it come?"

'm going to

git here any minute,

nto my room," she answe

ed, his eyes eagerly searching her face. He was assuming th

f he'll take you f

r? He drinks, I've heard.

d tell you. There's a place you could hide by the river whe

standing in the doorway of the other roo

a man's voice. Is it because o' him that you bin talkin' about no weddin'

er breast heaved with anger, but suddenly she b

she said, and, seating herself at the table also, sh

u've got a lot o' sense, Jinny, an' if you think he's tellin' the truth, why, it goes; but it's as big a mixup as a lariat in a steer's horns. You've got to hide him sure, whoever he is, for I wouldn't hand an Eskimo over, if

. He had all the vanity of a man who had been a success in a small, shrewd, c

a knot-hole an' died there. You got to save him, Jinny, but"-he came suddenly to his feet-"he ain't safe her

re he is a minute. There's things must be settled first.

He chuckled again. "As good a shot as any in the mountains. I can see you darin' 'em to come on. But what i

face. "I don't want to hear any more of tha

ot to git him up the hills, till it's sure they're out

red. "You don't remember he's got to be at Bindon by

ou're goin' to be married to-morrow. If you like, you can

responded, suggestively. "And

it was. I can't stand the racket as I once could. 'Pears to me I'm getti

le, even as its shadow fell upon her. "You wouldn't want a man to die, if you could save him, Uncle Tom-blown up, s

ll sun, and there's plenty everywhere; but there's no

in very truth she was urging herself all the t

m going down the river

d in blank amazement. His

comin' up with the minister, an' you're

. He's risked his life for his friend, thinkin' of her that's dead an' gone, and a man's life is a ma

w, and you ain't here, what do you think he'll do? The neighbors are comin' for fifty miles round, two is comin' up a hundred miles, and you can't-Jinny, you can't

e river yourself-a man to do a man's w

be. I oughtn't never to have had a whiskey-still, an' I wouldn't have drunk so much. I got money-money for you, Jinny, for you an' Jake, but I've lost what I'll never git back. I'm afeard to go down the river wit

to me, and you've bin a good friend, and you ain't the first that's found whiskey to

llow after you. That's nothing, an' they'll be your

to Bindon to-night. If Jake's mad, then it's all over

woman in the mountains ever had a petticoat like that, Jinny. It'd make a dress, it's that pretty

d smoothed it with quick, nervous fingers. "Can't you talk sense and leave my clothes alone? If Jake comes, and I'm not here, and he wants to make a f

the old man, laughing. "You're goin' to ha