Northern Lights

ver rivalry, although the odds were with the Indian-in lightness, in brutal strength. With the mikonaree, however, were skill, and that sort of strength which the world calls "moral,"

bank along which the Athabascas were running. He saw the garish colors of their dresses; he saw the ignorant medicine-man, with his mysterious bag, making incantations, he saw the tepee of the

hore. That is, if both were not carried under before they reached him; that is, if, having reached him, they and he would ever get to shore; for,

, but he swam with his eyes on the struggle for the shore also; he was not putting forth his utmos

ith a long stroke and a plunge of his body like a projectile, the dark face with the long, black

eart sink when a cry of triumph went up from the crowd on the banks. The white man knew by old experience in the cricket-field and in many a boat-race that it is well not to halloo

tled fiercely as Billy Rufus, not far above, moved down toward them at an angle. For a few yards Silver Tassel was going strong, then his pace slackened, he seemed to sink lower i

king out for the shore, he swam with bold, strong strokes, his judgment guiding him well past rocks beneath the surface. T

nd, exhausted now, was being swept toward the rapids. Silver Tassel's shoulder scarcely showed-his strength was gone. In a flash Billy Rufus saw there was but one thing to do. He must r

nd ran red with blood from twenty flesh wounds; but how by luck beyond the telling he brought Silver Tassel through safely into the quiet water a quarter of a mile below th

rd of eternal friendship, Knife-in-the-Wind took him into the tribe, and the boy Wingo bec

e and preached his first sermon, to the accompaniment of grunts of satisfaction from

t was summer, there was plenty of food, the missionary had been a

ertain and baptisms few, and the work was hard and the l

id for out of his private income-the bacon, beans, tea, coffee, and flour-had been raided by a band of hostile Indians, and he viewed with deep concern the progress of the severe winter. Although three years of hard, frugal

little in the larger disputes, and was forced to shut his eyes to intertribal enmities. He had no deep faith that he could quite civilize them; he knew that their conversion was only on the surface, and he fell back on his personal influenc

nt and housed itself at Fort O'Call, Silver Tassel acted badly, ho

nto fall into the hands of the Blackfeet?" he said. "Oshondonto says the

complaining words. "If the white man's Great Spirit can do a

d again and again to the storm raging without, as it had raged for this the longest week he had ever spent. If it would but slacken, a boat could go out to the nets set in the lake near by some days before, when the sun of spring had melted the ice. From the hour the nets had been set the storm had raged. On the day when the last morsel of meat and biscuit had been given away th

ept. Making it ready for the launch, he came back to the fort. Assembling the Indians, who had watched his movements clo

aded-for the sake of t

ill die if he goes. It is a fool's journey-

tely now. His genial spiri

Spirit carry him to the nets alone, and back again wi

know well that one man can't handle the boa

"I will go with Oshondonto," came the

pt on the tribe. Then suddenly it softened, and

the rough wind to the shore, launched the canoe on t

in the tossing canoe; the nets too heavy to be dragged, and fastened to the thwarts instead; the canoe going shoreward jerkily, a cork on the waves with an anchor behind; heavier seas and winds roaring down on them as they slowly near the shore; and at last, in one awful moment, the canoe upset, and the man and the boy in the water.... Then both clinging to the upturned canoe as it is driven near and nearer shore.... The boy washed off once, twice, and the man with his arm round clinging-clinging, as the shrieking storm answers to the calling of the Athabascas on the shore, and drives craft

om insensibility-waked to see himself with the body

ad fought his way to the nets and back again-hours, maybe? And the dead boy there, Wingo, who had risked his life, also dead-how long? His heart leaped-ah, not hours, only minutes, ma

ould have only been minutes ago. Trembling to his feet, he staggered over to Wingo, he felt

iam Rufus Holly struggling to bring to l

d down, as he tilted the body, as he rubbed, chafed, and strove. He forgot he was a missionary, he almost cursed himself. "For them-for cowards, I risked his life, the brave lad with no

s young life into the hazard without cause. Had he, then, saved the lad from the rapids and Silve

again, and he began to breathe spasmodically. A cry of joy came from the lips of the missionary, and he worked harder still. At last the eyes

y the missionary never repented the strong language he used against the Athabascas as h

sension during the famine. But the result was that the missionary had power in the land, and the belief in him was so great that, when Knife-in-the-Wind died, the tribe came to him to raise their chief

SPRINGS AND

was a thicket of close shrub. During the first day no one in Jansen thought anything of it, for it was a land of pilgrimage, and hundreds came and went on their journeys in search of free homesteads and good water and pa

his voice-voilà, it is like water in a cave. He is a great man-I dunno not; but he spik at me like dis, 'Is dere sick, and cripple, and stay-in-bed people here dat can't get up?' he say. An' I say, 'Not plenty, but some-bagosh! Dere is dat

with Ingles the Faith Healer. Whether he knew of the existence of this spring, or whether he chanced upon it, he did not say; but while he held Jansen in the palm of his hand, in the feverish days that followed, there were many who attache

et corners; and in his "Patmian voice," as Flood Rawley the lawyer called it, warned the people to flee their sins, and, purifying their hea

among you who have true belief in hearts all purged of evil, and yet are maimed, or sick

rose up from the hand-laying and the prayer eased of their ailments. Others he called upon to lie in the hot spring at the foot of the hill fo

aching and healing, and followed him, "converted and consecrated," as though he were a new Messiah. In this corner of the West was such a revival as none could

to preserve its institutions-and Laura Sloly had come to be an institution. Jansen had always plumed itself, and smiled, when she passed; and even now the most sentimentally religious of them inwardly anticipated the time when the town would return to its normal condition; and

from this golden chance as might have been expected, and lost much he did make by speculation, still he had his rich ranch left, and it and he and Laura were part of the hist

AITH

by riding ahead of a marauding Indian band to warn their intended victims, and had averted another tragedy of pioneer life. Pioneers proudly told strangers to Jansen of the girl of thirteen who rode a hundred and twenty miles without food, and sank inside the palisade of the Hudson Bay Com

the ranch, and kept for days, against the laughing protests of their parents. Flood Rawley called her the Pied Piper of Jansen, and, indeed, she had a voice that fluted and piped, and yet had so whimsical a note that the hardest faces softened at the sound of it; and she did not keep its best notes for the few. She was impartial, almost impersonal; no woman was her enemy, and every man was her friend-and not

ts freedom, and its force; capable of exquisite gentleness strenuous to exaggeration, with a very primitive religion, and the only religion Tim knew

. What they heard allayed their worst fears. She still smiled, and seemed as cheerful as before, they heard, and she neither spoke nor prayed in public, but she led the singing always. Now the anxious and the sceptical and the reactionary ventured out to see and hear; and seeing and hearing gave t

"saved" rejoiced; and the rest of the population, represented by Nicolle Terasse at one end and Flood Rawley at the other, flew to arms. No vigilance committee was ever more determined and secret and organized than the unconverted civic patriots who were determined to restore Jansen to its old-time condition. They pointed out col

so much exaltation into him that at last a spurious power seemed to possess him. He felt that there had entered into him something that could be depended on, not the mere flow of natural magnetism fed by an out-door life and a temperament of great emotional force and chance and suggestion-and other things. If, at first, he had influenced Laura, some ill-controlled, latent idealism in him, working on a latent poetry and spirituality in her, somehow bringing her into nearer touc

the house of Mary Jewell to await the miracle of faith. Apart from the emotional many who sang hymns and spiritual songs were a few determined men, bent on doing justice to Jansen though the heavens might fall. Whether

as swimming with the tide, and who approved of the Faith Healer's immersions in the hot Healing Springs; also a medical student who had pretended belief in Ingles, and two women weeping with unnecess

im Denton! Jerusal

depth of her eyes was troubled for a moment, as to the face of the old comes a tremor at the note of some long-forgotten

y, or a saw-off? Why, what a lot of Sunday-go-t

e: "You want know? Tiens, be quiet; here he co

f the little house. The crowd hushed. Some were awed, some were overpoweringly interested, some were cruelly patient. Nicolle Terasse and others

on this house," he said, and

with all his senses arrested. Then he gasped and exclaimed, "Well, I'm eternally-!" and

icent!-jerickety!" he sa

y at them, and asked them questions. They told him so much more than he cared to hear that his face flushed a deep red-the bronze

gedy-was afoot. As in a picture, framed by the window, they saw the kneeling figures, the Healer standing with outstretched arms. They heard his voice, sonorous and appealing, then commanding-and y

erate struggle to obey, but Nature

eat Healer came between and mercifully dealt the sufferer a blow-Death

done, she came to the door and opened it, and motioned for the Healer to leave. He hesitated, hearing the harsh murmur from the outskirts of the crowd. Once again she motioned, and he came. With a face deadly pale she surveyed the people before her sil

he Healer must pass into the open, and there was absolute stillness as La

y-Tim Denton's; and it was as stricken as her own. She passed, t

mounted his mule and ridden away with ever-quickening pace into

I know him. You hear? Ain't I no rights? I te

nd rode away. They watched the figure of the

d perhaps they'll let the snake g

ose," said Flood Rawley, anxiously

s honor to keep. It was the home of t

aura had had Playmates he had given all he had to give; he had waited and hoped ever since; and when the ruthless gossips had said to him before Mary Jewell's house that she was in love with the Faith Healer, n

assion and its repression. "If he's to go scot-free, then he's got to go; but the

; she had had her way-to save the preacher, impostor though he was; and now she fel

ged. "You say he was a landsharp in

ose, or take ta

didn't do them. Perhaps he is all bad, as you say-I don't think so. But he did some good things, and through him I've felt as I've never felt before about God and life, and about Walt and the baby-as though I'll see them again, sure. I've never felt that before.

r that lot down there"-he jerked a finger towa

hey filled with tears, through which the smile shone. To pret

Tim. People don't usually

what I'm d

It was like the long dream of Walt and the baby, and he a part of it. I don't know what I felt, or what I might have felt for him. I'm a woman-I can't understand. But I know what I feel now. I never want to see him a

rust that

e town. "See, I'm right; there they are, a doze

f Healing. "He's got an hour's start," she sa

't catch him

him first," she said,

then, as he met her soft, fearless,

l do it for you, Laura," he said.

at "getting religion" was not so depressing after al

. Heaven's gate will have to be pretty wide to let in a real Pioneer," she added. "He take

ittle laugh, which somehow did more for his ancient cause with her than all

ot to the mountains, which he and the Pioneers had seen the Faith Healer enter. They had had four miles' start of T

y the trees as darkness gathered. Changing his course, he entered the familiar hills, which he knew better than any Pioneer of Jansen, and rode a diagonal course over the trail they would take. But night fell suddenly, and there

tle stream, eating bread and honey, and, like an ancient woodlander, drinking from a horn-relic of his rank imposture. He made no resistance. They tried him, formally if perfunctorily; he admitted his

but he claimed the prisoner as his own, and declined to say what he meant to do. When, however, they saw the abject terror of the Faith Healer as he begged not to be left alone with

was Tim with his back to them, his hands on

e a monk of him," chuckled th

t'ink-bagosh!" said Nicolle Terasse

woods whither the Pioneers had gone. Then at last, slowly and with no rough

d his face and hands as though to cleanse them from contamination. He appeare

ng, except that he was not in immediate danger. When he had finished, he

g at his victim for some time without speaking. The other's eyes dropped, and a grayness stole over his features. This steely calm

s it played out? Why did you take to

reply: "I don't know. Somethi

ou come to

silence, then the

sickener

member, at

a while. I hadn't enough to eat, and I didn't know wh

eeing snakes!"

mean; I hadn't a

er-just was crooked, and slopped o

nakes often. And I wasn't quick at first to g

e as Adam! Well, was it in the desert you got your taste for honey, too, same as John the

but when I got to

ere you in

to a

r. He saw that the man

o come to pass, and mooning along, you and the sky and the v

lowers till I got to

t to the grass-country you just picked up the honey and the flowers, and a calf and a l

e the steel in the voi

ntry of what you'd felt and said and do

he othe

ife a hundred times, as if you'd just willed food and drink

had to think in the desert things I'd never t

good in th

ung his hea

s, to get what you were feeling for; you started in on the new racket too soo

r made n

by folks down there at Jansen, 'specially when there's the laying-on of hands and the Healing Springs. Oh, that was a pigsty game, Scranton, that about God giving you the Healing Springs, like Moses and the rock! Why, I discovered them springs myself two years ago, before I went South, and I guess God wasn't helping me any-not after I've kept out of His w

the othe

ome down. You ain't a scoundrel at heart-a friend of mine says so. You're a weak vessel-cracked, perhaps. You've got to be saved, and start right over again-and 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow!' Pray-pray, Scrant

the last word, for the Faith Healer

her-O God!"

o on," said the other and drew ba

d with misery. Denton, the world,

a strange, awed look, when an hour was past, he stole back into the shadow o

he had never felt in his life. He moved about self-consciously, aw

ng man cleared and quiet and shining. He h

he asked, quietly

em my past," answered th

ure?" Tim's voic

to me," was th

more, in imagination, he saw Laura Sloly standing at the door

money for your j

to go away-far away,

can live in the grass-country," came the dry

oved on a few steps

ot follow," he said. "I'll

not to hear; he was

the woods

hen he heard a step behind him. H

out this morning. I've se

rust me," he

nything else,"

eyes. "Well?" he asked. "I've d

a hand in his, "would you min

LE WIDOW

nurses from the East, herself an amateur, to attend the sufferers, she worked with such skill and devotion that the official thanks of the Corporation were offered he

own happiness-that was the way she had put it. Perhaps he was galled the less because others had striven for the same prize, and had been thrust back, with an almost tender misgiving as to their sense of self-preservation and sanity. Some of them were eligible enough, and all were of some position in the West. Yet she smiled them firmly away, to the wonder of Jansen, and to its satisfaction, for was it not a tribute to all that she would distinguish no particular unit by her permanent favo

rench-Canadian priest who had worked with her through all the dark weeks of the smallpox epidemic, and who knew what lay beneath the outer gayety. She had been buoyant of spirit beside the beds of the sick, and h

ess, all self. Keepin' herself for herself when there's many a good man needin' her. Mother o' Moses, how many! From Terry O'Ryan, brother of a peer, at Latouche, to Bernard Bapty

s part of his commercial equipment, an asset of his boyhoo

broadbrim hat he wore, and looked benignly but

enough to see-hien?" The priest laughed noiselessly, showing white teeth

t sure. It was my duty, and I did it. Was she to feel that Jansen did not price her high? Bedad, father, I rose betimes and did it, before anny man sh

ed a moment, looked at Finden with a curious reflective look, and then sai

aming, hunting, trapping; and they could hear it rushing past, see the swirling eddies, the impetuous currents, the occasional rafts moving majestically down the strea

atter of time, to the selfishest woman. 'Tis not the same with women as with men; you see, they don't get younger-that's a point. But"-he gave a meanin

ched a galloping horseman to whom Finden had po

on, sure! Say, father, it's a h

face, a cloud in his eyes. He sighed. "London,

is with the right man,

st, reflectively, but his eyes fu

where man an

in the eyes. "Then, as you say, she

yes steadily. "Did I say that? Then my tongue wasn't making a fo

knows many

to the heart of the mystery around which they had been man?uvring. "Have y

into the light of a new understanding and reve

TOO-AS PURTY AND AS

uilding not far away, which had been part of an old Hudson Bay Company's

s it, that bad case

. "Voilà, Madame Meydon, she is com

ittle widow of Jansen was coming from the

ight bewhiles. What is the matter with him-

o. He arrive, it is las' ni

her. A divil of a timper always both of us had, but the good-nature was with me, and I didn't drink and gamble and carry a pistol. It's ten years since he did the killing, down in Quebec, and I don't suppose the police will get him now. He's been counted dead.

geon's knife it cure him be

t Winnipeg, and this is two hundred miles from nowhe

ot tell any

ht as anny. There's no tongue that's so tied, when tying's needed, as

on should die, as Hadley is

I t

side the house, and presently Varley, the great London surgeon,

est. "I hear there's a bad c

voilà, come in! There is something cool to drink. Ah,

tly, much interested, told at some length of singular cases which had passed throug

nicalities," he said. "But I kept him living just the same. Time enough for him to repent in and get ready to go. A most interest

uestioning way, but neither made any response to Varley's remarks. There was a long mi

's figure, and, without a word, passed abruptly from the dining-room, where they were, into the prie

lway, from whence came the sound of the priest's voice. Presently there was ano

e," he

de, and the name had been but an expression of Jansen's paternal feeling for her. She had always had a good deal of fresh color, but to-day she seemed pale, though her eyes had a strange disturbing light. It was not that they brightened on seeing this man before her; they had been brighter, burningly bright, w

ently died, as the world believed he had done, so circumstantial was the evidence. He was not man enough to make the accepted belief in his death a fact. What could she do but act, since the day she got a letter from the Far Nort

e beyond description she had faced it, gently, quietly, but firmly faced it-firmly, because she had to be firm in keeping him within those bounds the invasion of which would have killed her. And after the first struggle with his unchangeable brutality it had been easier: for into his degenerate brain there had come a faint understanding of the real situation and of her. He had kept his side of

athed phantom of a sad, dead life; and when this black day of each year was over, for a few days afterwards she went nowhere, was seen by none.

interested her as Varley had done. Ten years before, she would not have appreciated or understood him, this intellectual, clean-shaven, rigidly abstemious man, whose pleasures belonged to the fishing-rod and the gun and the horse, and who had come to be so great a friend of him who had been her best friend-Father Bourassa. Father Bourassa had come to know the truth-not from her, for she had ever been a Protestant, but from her husband, who, Catholic by birth and a re

hich he dare not answer yes, but to which he might not answer no, and did not; and she realized that he knew the truth, and she was the better for his knowing, though her secret was no longer a secret. She was no

e to learn to say yes, and to take her back with him to London; and she knew that he would speak again to-day, and that she must say no again; but she had kept him from saying the words till now. And

ll of duty and of honor ringing through a thousand other voices of temptation and desire, the inner pleadings for a little happiness while yet she was young.

her-alluring her with a force too deep and powerful for weak human nature to bear for long. It would ease her pain, it said; it would still the tumult and the storm; it would solve her problem, it would give her peace. But as she moved along the river-bank among the trees, she met the little niece of the priest, who lived in his house, singing, as

home, where the youn

de, and the bells o

little l

at you u

that's quiet-will

darlin'? Never heed t

re wounded, that you be

luck o' Hea

and of love

h, darlin', will y

despairing apathy lifted slowly away. She started forward again with a new understanding, her footsteps quickened. She would go to Father Bourassa. He would understand

think. She was ushered into the room where he was, with the confusing fact of his presence fresh upon her. She had ha

eature she had left behind in the hospital and this tall, dark, self-contained man, whose name was familiar in

smile; "or is it to get a bill of excommunication aga

for her paleness and the strange light in her eyes gave h

cation?" h

t note in her voice which gave humor to her speech. "Yes, excommunication," she r

saying," he an

t she mastered herself, and

she said, with her eyes looking s

want you to save a man's happine

die unless your skill

r heart befriends him," he replied, coming closer to her.

is near, and you must save him. You only can do so, for Doctor Hadley is away, and Doctor Brydon is sick, a

s voice, his professional instinct roused in spite of

your experience to utter strangers, no matter how low or poor! Is it not so? Well, I

to see the

you

know of his accident

then said, "He is called Dra

y arrangements are made," he urged, his eyes hold

an save him?" she pleaded, unable now to

n the mire her unspotted life-unspotted, for in all temptation, in her defenceless position, she had kept the whole commandment; she had, while at the mercy of her own temperament, fought her way through all, with a weeping heart and laughing lips. Had she not longed for a little home with a great love, and a strong, true man? Ah, it had been lonely, bitterly lonely! Yet she had remained true to the scoundrel, from whom she could not free herself without putting him in the grasp of the law to atone fo

not see him di

er eyes to him again, there came the conviction that they were full of feeling for him. They were sending a message, an appealing, passionate message, which told him more than he had ever heard from her or seen in her face before.

his life if it is saved! Don't you think of that? It isn't the importance of a lif

im. But I will go and see him, and I'll send you word later what I can do or

, and was about to speak, but suddenly caught the hand away again from his thrilli

l," she whispered, and disa

a dying Catholic in the prairie, and it was Finden who accompanied Varley to the hospita

ed of Varley. "I'll take

do not understand the man. He has been in a different sphere of

if he's wo

lders impatiently. "No;

self. "Is it a diffi

cate; but it has b

doctors couldn't

d be fooli

ing away at sun

" Varley's voice wa

He's done more harm than most men. He's broken a woman's heart and spoiled her life, and, if he lives, there's no chance for her, none at all. He killed a man, and the law wants him; and she can't

d and gripped his arm

e-his re

n-and a dirty sha

Finden. He mounted quickly now, and was about to ride away, but

others," he answered. "I kn

tion, then Varley said, hoa

de waste of the prairie, and galloped away. Finden w

there's no telling what foolishness will get hold of him. It'd be safer if he got lost on the prairie

t. "I'll toss for it. Heads he

e said, philosophically, as though he had settled the question; as though the man riding aw

irie. The white heliographs of the elements flashed their warnings across the black sky, and the roaring artillery of the thunder came after, making the circle of prairie and tree and

were but half-conscious of the storm; it seemed only an accompaniment

prairie as the sun was setting the night before, and had made all arrangements at the hospital, giving orders that Meydon should

a man who had gone through an ordeal which had taxed his nerve to the utmost, to find Valerie Meydon wa

ed, it would have seemed almost unbearable in the circu

remained behind with Father Bourassa, till the patient should

for Meydon was in evident danger. Varley had come

ckoned to Mrs. Meydon and to Father Bourassa. "He wishes

ut with wide-open eyes, waiting for her. The eyes closed, however, before she reached the b

room, Finden said to V

rom another patient early this morning while th

it's due him. It was to be. I'm not envyi

watching the receding storm

esently the door opened and Father Bourassa entered. He

prairie, and there floated through the evening air the sound of

darlin'? Never heed t

re wounded, that you be

luck o' Hea

and of love

h, darlin', will y

THE RIS

and a good-natured surprise on his clean-shaven face that suited well his wide gray eyes and large, luxurious mouth. He had an estate, half ranch, half farm, with a French-Canadian manager named Vigon, an old prospector who viewed every foot of land in the world with the eye of the discoverer. Gold, coal, iron, oil, he searched for them everywhere, making s

going and restored his finances when they were at their worst. He was, in truth, the best rider in the country, and, so far, was the owner also of the best three-year-old that the West had produced. He achieved popularity without effort. The West laughed at his enterprises and loved him; he was at

ckinder, the heiress, and the challenge that reverberated through the West after her a

rendered to what they called "the laying on of hands" by Molly Mackinder. It was not certain, however, that the surrender was complete, because O'Ryan had been wounded before, and yet had not been taken captive altogether. His complete surrender seemed now more certain to t

e of the three, who bore malice toward O'Ryan, though this his colleagues did not know distinctly. The scene was a camp-fire-a starlit night, a colloquy between the three, upon

ehind-a pretty scene, evoking great applause. O'Ryan had never seen this back curtain-they had taken care that he should not-and, standing in the wings awaiting his cue, he was unprepared for the laught

e which shook the walls. La Touche rose at him, among the

listen to the talk of the men at the fire plotting against him, who were presently to pretend good comradeship to his face. It was a vigorous melodrama, with so

They used dialogue not in the original. It had a significance which the audience were not slow to appreciate, and went far to turn The Sunbu

night as I ever saw in the West! The sky's a picture.

ght-what are they called in astronomy

-a beauty, ain't i

me. "Many's the time I've watched Orion rising. Orion's the star

zenith. And La Touche had more than the worth of its money in this opening to the third act of the pla

t applause had confused him. Presently, however, he turned to the back curtain, as Orion moved slowly up the heavens, and fo

Has he got to rise? Why was the gent calle

k the field there was no room for the rest of the race. Why does he rise? Because it is a habit. They could always get a rise

tain again, and, when the audience could control

he wear th

last of them. But he went visiting with Eos, another lady of previous acquaintance, down at a place called Ortygia, and Artemis shot him dead with a shaft

stop rising?

e laughter had subsided, a lazy voice came from the back of the ha

could gauge more truly the course he would take. He had been in many an ent

yet others had reaped where he had sown. He had believed too much in his fellow-man. For the first time in his life he resented the friendly, almost affectionate satire of his many friends. It was amusing, it was delightful; but down beneath it all there was a little touch of ridicule. He had more brains than any of them, and he had known it in a way; he had led them sometimes, too, as on raids against cattle-stealers, and in a brush with half-breeds and Indians; as wh

id, quietly and satirically

rancher made deputy-sheriff, who by the occasional exercise of his duty had incurred the hatred of a small floating population that lived by fraud, violence, and cattle-stealing. The conspiracy was to raid his cattle, to lure him to pursuit,

and the climax neared where O'Ryan was to enter upon a physical str

us characters of the play, but of the three men, Fergus, Holden, and Constantine Jopp, who had planned the discomfiture of O'R

scrimmage. Constantine Jopp had been the plague and tyrant of O'Ryan's boyhood. He was now a big, leering fellow, with much money of his own, got chiefly from the coal disc

down twice was rescued by Jopp, who dragged him out by the hair of the head. He had been restored to consciousness on the bank and carried to his home, where he lay ill for days. During the course of the slight fever which followed the accident his hair was cut close to his head. Impetuous always, his firs

ave got you out, could I? Holy, what a sight! Next

, stuttered his thanks to the jeering laugh of the lan

d himself to be friendly, although the man was as great a bully as the boy, as offensive in mind and character; but withal acute and able in his way, and with a reputation for commercial sharpness which would be called by another name in a different civilization. They met constantly, and O'Ryan always put a hand on himself, and forced himself to be friendly. Once when Jopp became desperately ill there had been-though he fought it down, and condemned h

nstantine Jopp. There was only one man who knew the whole truth, and that was Gow Johnson, to whom Terry had once told all. At the last moment Fergus had interpolated certain points in the dialogue which were not even included at rehearsal. These referred to Apollo. He had a shrewd notion that Jopp had an idea of marrying Molly Mackinder if he could, cousins though they were; and he was also a

he deputy-sheriff, tie him to a tree, and leave him bound and gagged alone in the waste. There was a glitter in Terry's eyes, belying the lips which smiled in keeping with

e; and that he meant to have revenge on Constantine Jopp one way or another, and that soon; for she had heard the rumor flying through the hall that her cousin was the cause of the practical joke just played. From hints she had had from Const

him. When he looked into their eyes it was with a steely directness harder and fiercer than was observed by the audience. Once there was an occasion for O'Ryan to catch Fergus by the arm, and Fergus winced from the grip. When standing in the wings with Terry he ventured to apologize playfully for the joke, but Terry made no answer; and once again he h

now only a vehicle for a personal issue of a desperate character. No one had ever seen O'Ryan angry; and now that the demon of rage was on him, directed by a will suddenly grown to its full height, they saw not only a powerful character in a powerful melodrama, but a man of wild force. When the three desperadoes closed in on O'Ryan, and, with a blow from the shoulder which was not

rases belonging to the part. Jopp was silent, fighting with a malice which belongs to only half-breed, or half-bred, natures; and from far back in his own nature the distant Indian strain in him was working in savage hatred. The two were desperately hanging onto O'Ryan like pumas on a grizz

erything except that once again, as of old, Constantine Jopp was fighting him, with long, strong arms trying to bring him to the ground. Jopp's superior height gave him an advantage in a close grip; the strength of

rip upon the throat of Jopp, and they saw the grip tighten, tighten, and Jopp's face go from red to purple, a hundred people gasped. Excit

w Johnson was heard: "Do

sense of it came upon him. Suddenly he let go the lank throat of his enemy, and, by a supreme effort, flung him across the stage, where Jopp lay re

and frightened, but in her eyes was a look of understanding as she gazed at Terry. Breathing hard, Terry stood still in the middle of the stage, the red fog not yet gone out of his eyes, his hands clasped

n oppressive. But now a drawling v

of Orion?" it said. It wa

was not hilarious; it was the nervous laughter of relief, touched

Terry, quietly and abstr

bethought himself an

n the worth of their money. In a few moments the stage was crowded wi

y Mackinder. There was a meaning smile u

it-like a scene out of the class

. I felt like saying 'Ave, C?sar, ave!' and I

e added, with thoughtful malice. "It seemed so real-you all acted so well, so appropriately. And how you

answered. "Oh, I think we'll likely keep i

ed. "There is another act? Yes, I thoug

he answered, "but it isn't to b

it. You really weren't in th

t think there'll be anybody in it except little Conny Jopp and gentle Terry O'Ryan; and Conny mayn't be in it very long. But he'll be in i

ove to her during the last three months with unsuppressed activity, and she knew him in his sent

ll you, it was touch and go. He nearly broke my arm-would have done it, if I hadn't gone limp to him; and your cousin Conny Jopp, little Conny Jopp, was as near Kingdom Come as a man wants at his age. I saw an elephant go must once in India, and it was as like O'Ryan as putty is to

Johnson, excitement in his eye

ts up nights," Gow Johnson said.

" he cried, stretching out his arm toward the heavens, where the glittering galaxy hung near the zenith. "Terry O'Ryan-our O'Ryan-he's struck oil-on his ranch it's been struck. Old Vigon

except Molly Mackinder. She was wondering if O'Ryan risen would be the same to her as O'Rya

t, too. Oh, I'm glad-I'm so glad!" She laug

e light grew and grew, and the prairie was alive with people hurrying toward it. La Touche should have had the news hours earlier, but the half-breed French-Canadian, Vigon, who had made the discovery, and had sta

ike a star, had become to La Touche all at once its notoriety as well as its favorite, its great man as well as its friend, he was nowhere to be found. He had been seen riding full s

eption, and the keener spirits, to whom O'Ryan had ever been "a white man," and who so rejoiced in his good-luck now that they drank his health a hundred times in his own whiskey and cider, were simmering with desire for a public reproval of Constantine Jopp's conduct. Though it was pointed out to them by the astute Gow Johnson that Fergus and Holden had participated in the colossal joke of

ermined that O'Ryan should marry her; and this might be an obstruction in the path. It was true that O'Ryan now would be a rich man-one of the richest in the West, unless all signs failed; but, meanwhile, a union of fortunes would only be an added benefit. Besides, he had seen that O'Ryan was in earnest, and what O'Ryan wanted he him

Constantine Jopp had done the thing out of meanness and malice; for he was alive to-night in the light of the stars, with the sweet, crisp air blowing in his face, because of an act of courage on the part of his school-days' foe. He remembered now that, when he was drowning, he had clung to Jopp with frenzied arms and had endangered the bully's life also. The long torture of owing this debt to so mean a soul was on him still, was rooted in him; but suddenly, in the silent, searching night, some spirit whispered in his ear that this was the price which he must pay for his life saved to the world, a compromise with the Inexorable Thing. On the verge

shed the lungs of the rheum of passion! He rode on and on, farther and farther away from home, his back upon the s

m, he noticed nothing. He was only conscious of the omniscient night and its warm, penetrating friendliness; as, in a great trouble, when no words can be spoken, a cool, kind palm steals into th

, for the wrong done. He owed an apology to La Touche, and he was scarcely aware that the native gentlemanliness in him had said through his fever of passion over the fo

mind, as he rode back, a savage thrill at the remembrance of how he had handled the three, it was only a passing emotion. He was bent on putting himself right with

was. It was in the direction of O'Ryan's Ranch, but he thought nothing of it, because it burned steadily. It was probably a fire lighted by settler

down, it was not that of one indifferent to him or to what he did. He neared the town half-way between midnight and morning. Almost unconsciously avoiding the main streets, he rode a roundabout way toward the little house where Constantine Jopp lived. H

right thing now. He would put things straight with his foe before he slept

or groan. He opened the door quickly and entered. It was dark. In another room beyond was a light. From it came the same sound he had heard before, but louder; also there was a shuffling footstep. Springin

ned to the chair-arm, and beneath them, on the floor, were

f-breed Vigon. He grasped the situation in a flash. Vigon had gone mad, had lain in wait in Jopp's house, and, when

a knife clutched in his hand. Reason had fled, and he only saw in O'Ryan the frustrator

hile the half-breed, with superhuman strength, tried in vain for the long, brown throat of the man for whom he had struck oil. As they struggled and twisted, the eyes of the victim in the chair watched them with agonized emotions. For him it was life or death. He could not cry out-his

elt that the end was coming. But all at once, through the groans of the victim in the chair, Terry became conscious of noises outside-such noises as he had he

perate struggle, a

tsteps in the room, followed by

tine Jopp that a crowd were come to tar and fea

, then ran back to help O'Ryan. A moment later a dozen men had Vigon secu

is bleeding wrists, Jopp sobbed aloud. His eyes were fixed on Terry O'Ry

neak, but I want to own it. I want to be square now. You can tar and feather me,

chuckle, and the crowd looked at one another and winked. The wink was kindly, however.

a rail, carried Terry O'Ryan on their shoulders through the town, against his

ching the ri

ide. It had played its part with Fate against Constantine Jopp and the little widow at Jansen. It had never shone so brig

ROR OF

distance or range which must be put upon the sights in order to hit the t

to be made in sighting every time it is fired. Variations in atmosphere, condition of ammunit

in't he

dandy-o

price in the

llions-I t

ce of Billy Goat-his n

ld world, out

wear and no

motherless,

rtune, I'm dri

He had an inimitable drollery, heightened by a cast in his eye, a very large mouth, and a round, g

ian Pacific Railroad. Forty miles from Kowatin he had been caught by, and escaped from, the tall, brown-eyed man with the hard-bitten face who leaned against the open window of the tavern, looking indifferently at the jeering crowd before

ouble to cover him with their drunken ribaldry. He had scored off them in the past in just such spre

to this extent that, when the prairie-rover, Halbeck, escaped on the way to Prince Albert, after six months' hunt for him and a final capture in the Kowatin district, Foyle resigned the Force before the Commissioner could reproach him or call hi

was the best non-commissioned officer in the Force. He had frightened horse-thieves and bogus land-agents and speculators out of the country; had fearlessly tracked down a criminal or a band of criminals when the odds were heavy against him. He c

from his scarlet-coated dignity, from the place of guardian a

ted another song, Foyle roused himself as though to move

r father, come h

the steeple

e coming right h

our day's wo

me-come

searching into a scene beyond this bright sunlight and the far green-brown grass, and the little oasis of trees in the distance marking a homestead, and the dust of the wagon-wheel

re coming right

our day's wo

me-come

ow it had wrenched his heart and soul, and covered him with a sudden cloud of shame and anger. For his father had b

gh life, he had become inured to the seamy side of things-there was a seamy side even in this clea

your day's w

me-come

osing their heads; there was an element of irresponsibility in the new outbreak like

d was nearing the Prairie Home Hotel, far down the street. He would soon leave behind him this noisy ri

hit out, serg

e flushed, his eyes blurred with feeling and deep surprise,

not more than twenty-five, graceful, supple, and strong. Her chin was dimpled; across her right temple was a slight scar. She had eyes of a wonderful deep

ed to attempt unconcern; but it quivered from a force of

him with a foot behind the knees so that they were sprung fo

caught the tall cattleman by the forearm, and, with

s, you skunk!" he said,

squealed, so intense was the pain. It was break or bend; and he bent-to the ground and lay there. Foyle stood over him

ncy, but if any one thinks I'm a tame coyote to be poked with a stick-!" He broke off, stooped over

ter!" the cattleman said

, and he liked Sergeant Foyle with a great

eave the Happy Land to Foyle. Boys, what is

reply, as Billy Goat waved his arms about

oh, he's a knoc

ley, come-and-kiss-m

e pinch, and he's

oing careless, and h

n-and he'll s

bling, calling back at him, as they

n-and he'll so

d, as he watched them. "I've done my last c

down in the depths of a lonely nature had been stirred. Recognition, memory, tenderness, desire swam in his face, made generous and kind the hard lines of the strong mouth. In an instant he had swung himself over the window-sill.

you used to be, but you're surer. My, that was a twist you gave him, Nett. Aren't

ers. Then he gathered himself together. "Glad to see you? Of course, of course, I'm glad. You stunned me, Jo. Why, do you know where you are? You're a thousand miles from home.

What's that scar on your foreh

evasively, her eyes glittering, "and i

en't looking close as I am. You see, I

r, for he smiled rarely; and the smile was like a lantern turned on

ind things out. That's why you made them reckon with you out here. You always could

, was trying hard to keep things on the surface.

," he answered, slowly. "So they sa

head toward th

d, indignantly, and her face hardened.

ere both thinking of the same thing-of

out here, Jo?"

her face setting into d

" he said, heavily. "What for,

t her five hundred dollar

, I know.

g. He's taken it, stolen it from his own child by his own honest wife. I've come to get it-anyway, t

And you've kept Dorl's child wit

u know; and I've been dressmaking-they say I've

ty-five hundred dollars he's stolen from his o

t and a half,"

clothing, and everything; an

s child, and I love him-love him; but I want him to have

y. "Or you'll se

Better to do it now when Bobby

papers," he comme

o punish him, if it wasn't that he's your brother, Nett, and if i

now he was up

ord to the lawyer a month ago that he wanted it to get here as usual. The letter left the same day as I did, and it

ted. "To-d

etting of the lips, a line sinking

y some things to him that he won't forget. I'm going to get Bobby's money, or have

through. He's done everything that a man can do and not be hanged. A thief, a drunkard, and a brut

his mind. He came very near and looked at her closely. Then

do tha

ently she raised her eyes, her face suffused. Once or twice she

ow; but I was only sixteen, and what did I understand! And my mother was dead. One day-oh, please, Nett, you can guess. He said something to me. I made him leave the house. Before I could make plans wha

never write and tell me that, Jo? Y

were for a long time; and then-then it was all right about Bobby an

w. "He made that scar, and he-a

oked with shame and anger. "And he's

p here ever?" she

ent, then he added, "The letter wasn't t

e, Dorland W. Foyle. Didn't he g

something moved him strangely, and then he answered,

I read it all in the papers-the thief that you caught, and that got away. And you've left the M

n as a boy. But I remember how he used to steal and drink the brandy from her bedside, when she had the fever. She never knew the worst of him. But I let him away in the night, Jo, and I resigned, and

s. "You must not do it. You shall not do it. He must pay for his wickedness, not you. It would be a sin. You and what becomes of you mean so much." Suddenly, with

e trouble that was on him. "He's not likel

show that he could. He'd probably come in the evening. Does any one know hi

solution of the dark problem. "Only Billy Goatry know

e added, as Billy Go

"We've got to settle things with hi

and in his and held it. "If he comes, leave him to m

d. "You'll do what

too," he repli

loud footst

I'll tell him everything. He's all right;

slowly. "You keep watch on t

nd the opening

himself up and took on different manners. He had not been so intoxicated as he had made out, and he seemed only "mellow" as he

id Foyle. "This lady is one

Goatry said, vaguely,

he street, and presently she started as she g

hisper, and as though not realizi

ll as Foyle. "Halbec

, Goatry. I want you to keep a

u. If you get him this time, clamp him

nting, he looked quickly round, then drew the reins over the

s passed between

ered to the girl presently. "Go int

while Foyle stood waiting quietly at the door. The departing footsteps of

er!" he called after Goatry

, fiercely, his hand on s

you. Take your hand away from that gun-take it away

ot know what card his brother was going to play. He let his arm drop

le answered, and in the light of what wa

atry, who had handed the horse over

id to himself. "But, gosh! what a difference in the men

was nodding behind the bar, the proprietor was moving about in the backyard inspecting a horse. There was a cheerful warmth everywhere; the air was like an elixir; the pungent smell of a pine-tree at the door gave a kind of medicament to the i

hart for coo

ted in t

ch. Foyle had asked him not to intervene, but only to stand by and await the issue of this final conference. He meant, however, to take a hand

you want with me?" asked

s he drew the blind three-quarters down, so

'm going South. I've only just time to catch the

t going So

g, then?" was th

r than the

don't mean you're trying to arre

ner. You're my prisoner," he said, in a

then," said the other, h

r, and a pistol was in his face be

Foyle said, quietly. Halbeck

himself. His brother

rl," came the

ated face and heavy angry lips, looking like a debauc

you did of killing Linley, the ranchman; than you did of trying to ruin Jo Byndon, your wife's sister, when she wa

name of hel

ter. I know

d you-th

to-day-an

There was a new, co

in the n

she come

ut a man who robbed his child for five years, and let that child be fed and clothed and car

She was always in love wi

en't put myself outside the boundary as you have. You're my brother, but you're the worst scoundrel in the country-the worst unhanged. Put on the tabl

le. "I'll pay the rest as soon as I can, if you'll stop this damne

you stole from the C. P. R. contractor'

to go to pr

m enough wrong already. Do you want him-but it doesn't matter whether you do or not-do you want him to carry through life the fac

hen?" The man sank slowly an

you threatened others as you did me, and life see

ch followed Foyle's words his brain was struggling to see a way

thing. You'll never repent of all yo

had both courage and bravado; he was not hopeless yet of find

going to snivel or repent now. It's all

lbeck's pistol over toward him on the table. Halbeck's eyes lighted eagerly, grew red wit

pocket. But I don't think you will. You've murdered one man. You won't load your soul up with another. Besides,

s crept out and

the ex-sergeant, as he turn

inside softly. He had work to do, if need be,

ng his chances. A large mirror hung on the wall opposite Halbeck. Goatry was wat

ror. The dark devilry faded out of his eyes. His li

to his head. It cracked, and he fell back heavily i

sen the be

Goatry, as Foyle swung ro

me a rush of people.

eck, and Halbeck's shot himse

a scar on her temple mad

WILL NEVER GET AWAY

of the man she loved; and he did not let

th Billy Goatry to the headquarters of the Riders of the Plains, wher

WHIS

ch shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a f

low land, there by a covert of trees also tinged with yellow, or deepening to crimson and mauve-the harbinger of autumn. The sun had not the insistent and intensive strength of more southerly climes; it was buoyant, confident, and heartening, and it shone in a turquoise v

ls' habitations. Many of the houses stood blank and staring in the expanse, but some had trees, and others little oases of

ere-a lake shimmering in the eager sun, washing against a reedy shore, a little river running into the reedy lake at one end and out at the other, a small, dilapidated house half hid in a

cks settled on the lake not far from him with a swish and flutter; a coyote ran past, veering as it saw the recumbent figure; a prairie hen rustled by with a shrill c

ked the man as an excrescence in this theatre of hope and fruitful toil. It all belonged to some d

essness. Or was it that sleep of the worn-out spirit which, tortured by remembrance and remorse, at last sinks into the d

it was no bigger than a cane; in the other she carried a small fishing-basket. Her father's shooting and fishing camp was a few miles away by a lake of greater size than this which she approached. She had tired of the gay company in camp, brought up for sport from beyond the American border where she also belonged, and she had come to explore the river running into this re

isturbed in its travel past him, suddenly raised itself in anger. Startled out of sleep by

has habitation everywhere, dropping her basket she sprang forward noiselessly. The short, telescoped fishing-rod she carried swung round her head and completed its next

me upon the face of a reprieved victim about to be given to the fire or to the knife that flays. The place of dreams from which he had emerged was like hell, and this was some world

been worth saving was another question; but he had been near to the brink, had looked in, and the a

he ragged waistcoat underneath, and adjusting his worn and dirty hat

shall whisper out of the dust." He had not yet recovered from the first impress

f in pity and half in c

gesture. "I had been fishing"-she took up the basket-"and c

h a note of half-shamed gratitude. "I want to thank you," he added. "You were brave. It would ha

king as though to depart. But presently she turned back. "Why

swered her, in a dull, heavy tone, "I've had bad luck, and

s you are now-I mean long

rejoined, sluggishl

She looked at the hair already gray, th

long to you," she

king of his boyhood. Everything, save one or two spots a

ith a gleam of the intelligence

lth to dispense, for her father was rich beyond counting, and she controlled his household and helped to regulate his charities. S

e only man in this beautiful land who lives like this, who is idle when there is so

h, colorless face. "I don't slee

you sleep?"

is foot. The tail moved; he stamped upon the head with almo

d her. "It is never too late to mend," she said, and moved on, bu

hen stopped short when he saw to whom she had been talking. A look of

to that man?" he said. "You ought no

ne?" she asked.

e. Afterward he began drinking, and he took to gambling harder than ever. Presently his money all went and he had to work; but his bad habits had fastened on him, and now he lives from hand to mouth, sometimes working for a month, sometimes idle for months. There's something

m had been a different man; and there had shot into her mind the face of a ranchman she had seen with her father, the railway king, one evening when his "special" had stopped at a railway station on his tour through Montana-ten years ago. Why did the face of the ranchman

name?" she

gon," he

ained her thought-his face that moment when her hand saved him and

ing was before him, her beauty, her wealth, herself. He could not dwell

u get them, the b

r cheeks, and the m

North Trail, the ro

he seven gold ga

camp in the Nort

ires lit and the

tching them until they were out of view. The s

s camp on the Nor

ires lit and the

otten land, coming upon ruins of a vast civilization, towers, temples and palaces, in the golden glow of an Eastern evening, stands abashed and vaguely wondering, having neither reason to understand nor feeling to

ng days since the last letter had arrived, now agitated, now apathetic and sullen, now struggling with some invisible being that kept whispering in his ear, saying to hi

ers. There were himself and Dupont and another. Dupont was coming to-night-Dupont, who had profited by the crime, and had not spent his profits, but had built upon them to further profit; for Dupont was avaricious and pr

which did cruel and vicious things, at last becoming criminal also. Henderley had incited and paid; the others, Dupont and Lygon, had acted and received. Henderley had had no remorse, none at any rate that weighed upon him, for he had got used to ruining rivals and seeing strong men go down, and those who had fought him come to beg or borrow of him in the end. He had seen more than one commit suicide, and those they loved go down and farther down,

d three people had lost their lives; all to satisfy the savage desire of one man, to destroy the chance of a cattle trade over a great section of country for the railway which was to compete with his own-an act which, in the end, was futile, failed of its purpose. Dupont an

he hatchet of crime was to be dug

ed. There was where he belonged, within four stone walls; yet here he was free to go where he willed, to live as he willed, with no eye upon him. With no eye upon him? There was no eye, but there was the Whisperer whom he could never drive away. Morning and night he heard the words: "You-you-you! Fire and blood and shame!" He had snatched sleep when he could find it, af

. He had not the courage to face Dupont without it, nor yet to forget what he must forget if he was to do the work Dupont came to arrange-he must forg

w the silver glitter of the moon upon the water. Not a breath of wind stirred, and the shining path the moon made upon the

nt canoe, with a figure as silently paddling toward him. He ga

he said, m

raped on the shore, and a tall, burly figure spr

là-Lygon?

the nervous, h

. "Ah, ben, here we are aga

e, holding their hands to the warmth from f

-night-then?" Dupont sa

joined the ot

yes. "You not unnerstan' my letters-b

, staring into the fire w

years, and he t'ink it is all right. He t'ink we come no more becos' he give five t'ousand dollars to us each. That w

her furtively, for he did not like this silence. But he w

is at home, an' can buy off the law. But here-it is Canadaw, an' they not care eef he have hunder' meellion dollar. He know that-sure. Eef you say you not care a dam to go

ould get away into-into another world somewhere, some world where he could forget, as he fo

s neck involuntarily. Ten thousand dollars-but ten thousand dollars by blackmail, hush-mo

nfederate, the tool. Now, Dupont, once the rough river-driver, grown prosperous in a large way for him-who might yet be mayor of his town in Quebec-he held the rod of rule. Lygon was conscious that the fifty dollars sent him every New Year for five years by Dupont had been sent with a purpose, and that he was now D

Forks, an' we will come back togedder. His check will do. Eef he gif at all, the check is all right. He will not stop it. Eef he have the money, it is better-sacré-y

quickly, as Dupont stooped to pick a coal for his pipe from the blaze. Lygon had no fixed

most speechless apathy, he heard Du

fect his relations with those about him. In everything he was "considered." He was in good-humor, for he had won all the evening, and with a smile he rubbed his hands among the notes-three thousand dollars it

of him. He had been in danger of his life many times, and he had no fear. He had been threatened wit

d not call out; he looke

ing here? Who ar

answered Lygon, gaz

esire to put the screw upon him. At sight of this millionaire with the pile of notes before him there vanished the sickening hesitat

oon," Lygon added, his hea

ete composure. He knew the game that was forward here, and he also thought that if once he yielded

ere is no proof," he sa

nt," answered

is Du

an who helped me-I

ou died. You wrote that to me.

blood and shame. No Whisperer reminded him of that black page in the history of his life; he had been immune of conscience. He could not understand this man before him. It was as bad a case of human degradation as ever he had seen-he remembered the stalwart, if dissipated, ranchman who had acted on his instigation. He knew now that he had

ll give proof. He would go to jail or to the gallows to

rize for a little longer, for rashness might bring scandal o

ould get out of me, if I let you bleed me?" he a

still raged, was about to reply, when h

He saw the snake upon the ground by the reedy lake, the girl st

ther room of the great tent, but before he could reach it t

id; then stood still, a

exclaimed.

as a flying insect stirs the water of a pool. On the

alk with this man, and she had seen him from the steps of the "special." It was only the caricature

father, and he saw now in Henderley's ey

e vulnerable part of him. Lygon could see that he was stunned. The great financier

other her father was responsible for this man's d

t to see me?

somewhere; and she had a vague dread of she knew not what, for, hide it, avoid it, a

presence had altered him. He was again

s the man I told you of-at the reedy lak

k your father if he would not buy my shack. There is good shooting at the lake; the ducks come plenty, sometimes. I want to get away, to s

derstood better than Lygon or Henderley could hav

self again, and the startle

d, with restored confidence. The fellow no doubt was gr

llars," answered

he thought it better not to do so. "I'll buy it," he said. "You seem to hav

ill do to-morrow. It's doing me a good turn. I'll get away and start

tent-curtain rose and fell, a

as she kissed her father, and he, with an ov

anged into a man of straw o

d Dupont a

-yes?" Dupont asked, eage

ll right," an

canoe, and they got away into the moonlight. No word was spoken

ach-in cash or check, eh? T

othing," an

d his paddle

ou said eet was all

g. I asked for nothing. I have

and caught him by the throat as the canoe

nife, and got it, but the pressure

was fighting with the desperation of one who m

od, but as he got it home he suddenly reeled blindly, l

ing freely, waited for him to r

nt by, and still there was no stir, no sign. Dupont would never ris

as best he could. He did it calml

f I can. I will not be afraid to

asped an oar an

the boat in to face the Forks again, it hel

etermined mind as from youth to age. Would it never end? It seemed a terrible climbing-up the sides of a cliff, and, as he struggled fainting on, all sorts of sounds were in his ears, but he realized that the Whisperer was no longer t

THE STRUGG

was so near. Then he called, and called again, and fell forward on his face. But now he heard a voice above him.

ice was speaking above him. There were othe

, God help him!"

breath. "I will sleep

r the Whispe

P AS T

e nothing but what I stand in. I've got prospects, but I can't discount prospects at the

swim with me, and if you can't help me-oh, I'd take my gruel without whining, if it wasn't for Di! It'

f?-th

tered him. He felt that the black words which had fallen from his friend's lips-from the lips of Diana Welldon's brother-were the truth. He looked at the plump face, the full, amiable eyes, now misty

if this thing could hurt Di Welldon, and action was necessary, he must remain cool. What she was to do, Heaven and he only knew; what she had done for him

he fell at the last fence; five hundred at poker with Nick Fison; and a t

hand in the railway c

he Edmonton corner-blocks, too. I'd had luck w

ailway people-Sh

e me till midnight to pay up or go to jail. They're watching me now. I can't stir. There'

u oughtn't to bet, or speculate, or play cards, you're not clever enough. You've got blind rashness

explain." The weak face puckered, a lifele

s sold at twenty per cent. of their value; and she'd mortgage the little income she's got to keep her brother out of jail. Of cou

. "But I don't want to tell her, or to ask her for money. That's why I've come t

seemed to have time and space behind them-not before them. The lips were delicate and full, and had the look suggesting a smile which the inward thought has stayed. It was like one of the Titian women-like a Titian that hangs on the wall of the Gallery at Munich. The head and neck, the whole personality, had an air of distinction and destiny. The drawing had been done by a wandering duchess who had see

a signal for cheerful looks; whose buoyant humor and impartial friendliness gained her innumerable friends; and whose talent, un

s. "I haven't been a saint, and she knows it, as you say, Dan; but th

e pretty tough, and you oughtn't to w

t I didn't lay my hands on the ark of the social covenant, whose inscription is, Thou shalt not st

at's done can't be undone." Then, with a sudden b

money. By speaki

er was

er's face, and he knew that there was no real securit

ce to start st

nder of words that Rawley himself had said to Diana Welldon but a few months ago, and a new spirit

t the worst she could pass me by on the other side, and there would be an end. It would have been said that Flood Rawley had got his deserts. It's different with you." His voice changed, softened. "Dan, I made a pledge to her that I'd never play cards again for money while I lived, and it wasn't a thing to take on without some cogitation. But I cogitated, and took it on, and starte

od, Flood!" The

ome before midnight. I'll be here then, if I'm alive. If you don't keep your word-but,

whispered reply. "I'll make it up to yo

up his cap f

said. Then, with a long look at the portrait on the wall and an exclamation

white hands, her head turned from the easel to him, a book in her lap, the sun

wered, with a whimsical quirk of the mouth an

e if you knew I was he

umor, and at his last gasp would have noted the ridiculous thing. And surely it was a droll malignity of Fate to bring him here to her whom,

ss?" she inquired, gayly. "You a

he amount," h

into the distance. "You make me think of it, too, and I don't want to do

M'Gregor preaches every Sunday. 'Be elect or be damned,' he says to us

ked, softly. "Are you sure I wasn't

Suddenly he became grave. "I hear you call me in the night sometimes, and I start up and say

ay. They've got a look that used to be in them, Flood, before-before you promised; and another look I don't und

chance," he said. "That's because you're a genius, I sup

interlacing. "I heard a man say once that you were 'as deep as the sea.' He did not mean it kindly, but I d

there," he answered, nodding toward a s

. "What do you want with him-not medici

good many out here owe him m

h an old mise

h, does he?" was the

nowhere. He must have had friends once. Some one must onc

ed, abstractedly. "Probably there's some g

usiness with him? Won't you

I think so." He got to his feet. "I must be going, Di," he added. Suddenly a flush swept over his face, and he reached out and took b

to myself just now. It is from a book I got from Quebec, called When Time Shall Pass. It is a story of two li

w a star in a dark night when I see it,"

ummer-the distant clack of a reaper, the crack of a whip, the locusts droning, the whir of a y

glimpses of some second being, some possible, maybe never-to-be-realized future, alas! Yet these swift-moving shutters of the soul, or imagination, or reality-who shall say which?-give me a joy never before felt in life. If I am not a better man for this love of mine for you, I am more than I was, and shall be more than I am. Much of my life in the past was mean and small, so much that I have said and done has been unworthy-my love for you is too sharp a light for my gross imperfections of the past! Come what will, be what must, I stake my life, my heart, my soul on you-that beautiful, beloved face; those deep eye

o him. "If I could write, that's what I should have said to you, beautiful and belo

him. "You were never bad," she added; then, with an arm sweeping th

ALL WORTH LI

beside him a dark humiliation and a shame which would poison her life hereafter, unless

Caliban,"

sure and make him tell you the story of his life," she adde

ing his long strides, she said,

looked at her hands-"until 'those lucid, perfect hands bound me to the mast of your destiny.' O vain Diana! But they are r

iana!" sh

t ceremony. There was no need for courtesy, and the w

. He scarcely raised his head when Rawley entered-through the open door he had seen his v

want?" he gro

the coat-front was spattered with stains of all kinds, the hair and beard were unkempt and long, giving him what would have been the look of a mangy lion but that the face had the expression of some beast less honorable. The eyes, however, were malignantly intelligent; the

last, wiping his beard and mouth with the

ead, at the forceps, knives, and other surgical instruments on the walls-they at

want. A friend of mine has

he joke, for a "shin-plaster" was a m

t they cost twenty-five cents each. You c

from you. He's hurt pretty ba

ds. "There's plenty of wanting and not much getting in this world," he rejoined, with a leer of contem

root-Rawley was smoking very hard, but

o get it, you'll face the devil or the Beast

dish-brown face grew black lik

Revelations-don't you

to his folly," was the hoarse reply, and the g

s when the folly is all out we'll co

y in his seat, while a hand twitched across the mouth and then

almost confidentially, as to some ignorant and misguided savage-as he had talke

h that you're no doctor, speaking technically, we've both had 'revelations.' You've seen a lot that's seamy, and so have I. You're pretty seamy yourself. In fact, you're

cheroot, while the figure before him swaye

cks before their time. You've rooked 'em, chiselled 'em out of a lot of cash, too. There was old Lamson-fifteen hundred for the goitre on his neck; and Mrs. Gilligan f

the guttural answer, and the tal

haven't paid me high for saving you in the courts; and there's one case that

rd once or twice with an effort at self-control. Presently he steadied to the ord

h-that was the switchman's wife. And the law is hard in the West where a woman's in the case-qui

bluff!" came the reply in a

's wife to her husband. It reached me the night he was killed by the avalanche. It was handed over to me

ad now disappeared, and

matter any more than you wasn't alive and hadn't a family that does matter, I wouldn't be asking you peaceably for two thousand dollars

gether, the hands clinched. "Bl

llars to help a friend in a hole, and I mean t

with my mouth shut? I'd not pay up alone. The West would crack-holy Heaven, I know enough to make it sick. Go on and see! I'

fficult than he had expected. He kept cool, imperturbable, and determined, however. He knew that what the old quack said was true-the West might shake with scandal concerning a few who, no doubt, in remorse and

ing in an old box, drew out a dice-box. Rattling the dice, he threw them

twenty years. I gambled with these then." He shook the dice in the box. "I gambled everything I had away-more than two thousand dollars-more than two thousand dollars." He laughed a raw, mirthless laugh. "Well, you're the greatest gambler in the West. So was I-in the East. It pulverized me at last, when I'd nothing left-and drink, drink, drink. I gave up both one night and came out West. I started doctoring here. I've got money, plenty of money-medicine, mines, land got it for me. I

im into that area of fiery abstraction where every nerve is strung to a fine tension and the surrounding world disappears, he saw the face of Diana Welldon, he remembered her words to him not an hour before, and the issue of the conflict, other co

to play with,"

out layers of ten, fifty, and hundred dollar bills. It was lined with them. He passe

n he might have done it, with this man before him it was impossible. He must take his chances; and it was the only chance in which he had hope

said the grimy quack

e stop at eleven o'clock, unless

t's left on th

es

cause, brings heavy penalties to the honest mind. He shut his eyes for an instant, and, when he opened them, he saw that his fellow-gambler

id, sharply, and

an occasional exclamation from the old man as he threw a double-six. As dusk

hanged and his pile grew larger; then fell again; but, as the hands of the clock on the wall abo

ed in his favor, and his pile mounted again. Time after time he dropped double-sixes. It was almost uncanny. He seemed to see the dice in the box, and his hand threw them out with the precision of a m

said, in a whisper

faintness passed over him. He had sat so long without moving that his legs bent under him. There was a pail of water with a

stractedly-"Dan, y

s leaning on it with both hands, and staring at Rawley like some animal jaded and bea

" he said, and put the other

ched the pile and swept it into a great insi

for Dan," he sa

hat is that to you?"

r lurched round, opened a box, drew o

I'm put into the ground-you're clever. They call me a quack. Malpractice

ho had almost ruined his own brother-the father of Dan and Diana-at cards and dice, and had then ruined himse

and'll have it all some day. But not till I've finished with it-not unless you win it from me at dice or cards.... But no"-something human came into the old, degenerate face-"no m

and, hastily drinking another dipperful of water, he opened the door. He looked back. The old man was crouching forward, l

epped out into the night, c