swept the dale, but a fire burned in the room into which he was shown and the curtains w

ne some distance," he said. "Then I c

d your dinner," Mis

re a different dress th

dinner that stopped me. Besi

suppose it would strike you; but since you

heavy beams across the low ceiling. There was a tall clock, and a big, black oak chest; curled ram's horns and brass candlesticks twinkled on the mantel; an old copper kettle threw back red re

and cream, her hair changed from warm brown to gold as it caught the light, and her eyes were calm and gray. She was younger than the other and he thought he

is better," he sai

dn't find it altogether a drawback when we stopped at the bottom

inted because you cou

sappointed then, though I am now. Perhaps one really enjoys mountaineering best afterwards. You like

ll you feel sorry if, as we say, yo

mpathetic smile. "Y

my limits, though Helen does not know hers. When I can't get what I'

ng for, anyway,"

sounded priggish. M

some of the clothes you brought to dry, although it was thou

sting declared. "I meant t

nobody else here and a wet evening's drear

deaf tourist and two tired climbers, who

Well," she said as she went out

Helen apologetically. "You s

t was lucky I met you to-day. You didn't come back to see us, and there is something--" She hes

bout the portrait, but she resumed: "As a matter of fa

t under

ishmen in a Western mining town. He had

to have known--He looked like you. I mean I ou

er," Hele

made Festing's heart beat: "You gave him work and helped him to ma

iting. Afterwards he got on by his own

than me. I have no other brother, and was very fond of him. Indeed, I t

to another part of the road. It was my fault-he wrote, but I

he told us about the likelihood of his getting some new promotion." She pause

musing and rather patronized them. Of course, they were fresh from a scientific college o

g letters about the struggle you had at

, "we were up against it the

side. He said it was a job for giants; clinging to the face of the precipice while you blew out and built on-under-pinning, isn't it?-the first construction track. Bu

glad, when the worst was over, that he had

slept in our working clothes, which were generally stained with mud and engine grease. Then I don't s

the canyon. Then it was a stubborn fight of the kind that man was meant to wage. If you win in trade and politics, somebody must lose, b

e-lay the steel across the gap a snowslide has made, it's obvious if you have done the j

you on. You must have had a b

ntal vein. She felt what she frankly hinted at, and although he generall

ntive to do one's best, but I suppose when one gets up against big

c nod. "The hate of being beaten distinguishes man

, who felt he could not keep up long on Helen's plane. Besid

t now. The ape is cunning but acquiescent and accepts things as they are. Man protests, a

down and resumed: "But I suppose y

se, but as a rule one doesn't find them in the woods and on

done either. It looks as if you hadn't much use for purely ornamental people. But wh

always learn, and I imagine every

seems to be the conventional view. But how d

g ballast on the track. The tro

you do bef

times packed-that means carrying things-

ds interesting. Won't

ctive girls, and they helped him with tactful questions. Indeed, he was surprised to find they knew something about the rugged country in which he wandered. He told them about risky journeys up l

broke up and the floods hurled the thundering floes among the rocks; and of tangled woods sinking into profound silence in the stinging frost. Moreover, he unc

type to both girls, although Helen was nearer to him than the other and sympathized where her companion was amused. Festing's ideas were clean-cut, his honesty was

ilroad when it's finishe

to carry me far, and as the road is openin

know much ab

how they make progress. On the plains, it isn't what you know that counts, but the capacit

thing of the kind. He claims that genius takes many different forms, but is not different in itself. That

the plains, where shams don't count and efficiency's the test. I don't mean that the boys have genius, but gift and perseverance

ng would succeed. The man looked determined and, in a way, ascetic; he could deny himself and concentra

tter, "that farming's laboriou

ing agreed. "It may be profit

the ox-teams slowly breaking the first furrow, and then the big Percheron horses and gasoline tractors taking their place. Wooden shacks dotted the white grass, the belts of green wheat widened, wagons, and afterwards automobiles, lurched along the rutted trails. Then the rail

too much. Still the big movement out there is fascinating and people in this country do

, but we were not bored at all," Miss Jardine repli

ting her hand. When he had gone Mis

e we ought to feel flattered, because he took our comprehension for granted.

ned. "It's the first time I've k

himself, although it would have embarrassed him if he'd guessed. The curious thin

a book, but she thought more abou