e; but she came back afterwards twice a week or so with odd baskets of dainties to make sure that the latter, in whom she had no confidence, was discharging his d

t of it, and then up again into the room beneath the roof above. It had been one of Sproatly's duties during the past two weeks to rise and renew the fire when the cold awakened his

n Hawtrey, though he had scarcely reached thirty, a man of tranquil manner, with a rather lean and deeply bronzed face, of average height, and somewhat spare of figure. He held a pipe in his hand, and was then looking at Hawtrey with quiet, contemplative eyes. They were, indeed, his most noticeable feature, though it was difficult to say whether their colour wa

ference of opinion with the authorities. Though the matter was never made quite clear, it was generally believed that Wyllard had quietly borne the blame of a comrade's action, for there was a vein of eccentric generosity in the lad. In any case, he left Toronto, and the relative, who was largely interested in the fur business, next sent him

ad every white man's hand against them, as well as fog and gale, and the reefs that lay in the tideways of almost uncharted waters; but Wyllard made the most of it. He kept the peace with jealous skippers who resented the presence of a man they might comman

ain. He succeeded, in so far that the wrecked men were taken off the roaring beach through a tumult of breaking surf, but as they pulled seaward the fog shut down on them, and one boat, manned by three men, never reached the schooners. They blew horns all night, standing off and on, and crept along the smoking

in Province after a disastrous harvest. In the meanwhile, his father had sold out, and taken up virgin soil in Assiniboia. He died soon after Wyllard went back to him, and a few months later the relative in Vancouver also died. Somewhat to

long satisfactorily?

unusually thoughtful

now," he added. "There's the ploughing to commence in a week

g the next moment or two he glanced meditatively through the open door into the adjoining room, where Sally Creighton was busy beside the stove. T

r or more capable girl in thi

dmit that. Still, since you seem so sure

here are one or two reasons that don't affect Miss Sally and only c

out, before he looked up again. "Since it

't. She's

isn't it, since yo

ss them. In most respects they were ultra-conventional with old-fashioned ideas, and, though there was no open break, I'm afraid I didn't get on with them quite as well as I should have done, which is why I came out to Canada. They started me on the land decently,

ou have mentione

ttle, old-fashioned, half-ruinous place, a mile or two from where we live in the North of England. It belongs to her mother's folks, but I think there was still a feud between them and her father's people, who brought her up to earn her living. We saw a goo

I ought to have managed it sooner," he added. "Still, things never seem to go quite as one would like with me, a

h he sat, and into the other, which was als

ted, "I can qui

forward than I was four years ago. In the meanwhile, Agatha, who has some talent for music, was in a first-class master's hands. Afterward

n his face, and then fumbling under his pillo

nds," he said. "You can

of quickening interest crept into his eyes

ve girl would write," he said. "Sti

e two were firm friends, and there had been a day when, as they worked upon a dizzy railroad trestle, Hawtrey had held his comrade fast whe

d from her mother's relatives. Any way, she can't be left to face the blow alone. It's unthinkable. Well, there's only one course open to me, and that's to raise as many dollars on a mortgage

ent or two, and then lea

ell the girl what things are like here, and just how you

ld, but considering that you have never seen her,

girl who wrote that l

y, "you can mention

rest-which is less than any land-broke

be done. I'd a kind of claim upon my people, though it must be admitted that I'v

I haven't told you that I've decided to make a trip to the Old Country. We'd a bonanza crop last season, and Martial could run the range for a month or two. After all, my fat

ve mentioned him, but, so far as I remember, yo

a good many leagues of the spot. We were up in the ranges prospecting then. Well, we made camp and gave him supper-he couldn't eat very much-and he told me what brought him there afterwards. It seemed to me he'd always been weedy in the chest, but he'd been workin

ining boss, and a rather curious little sparkle crept

was too far through," he added. "He hung on for a week or two, and one of us brought a d

. He also knew that Wyllard had been earning his living as a railroad navvy or chopper then, and, in view of the cost of provisions brought by pack-hors

arned his nam

their pay-roll wasn't his real one. He commenced a broken message the night he died, but the hemorrh

recatory gesture, which in connectio

young Englishman, and the only clue I have is a watch with a London maker's name on it a

a minute or two after this, but his face s

hile yet, and if I went over to England I couldn't get the ploughing done a

for that matter, is not infrequently in debt to the nearest storekeeper. He must, as a rule, secure a harvest

uty. You could make Agatha understand what things are like here, and bri

nted out several objections. Hawtrey over-ruled them,

the same time the thing might be managed," he said. "I believe she's in Winnip

, but somehow it got mislaid one house-clea

curious thing that Hawtrey should have lost the picture which the girl he was i

again. Candidly, the thing has somewhat astonis

're first-rate friends, but I never ha

n he had crossed the room she set down the tray and leaned upon the table, with her cheeks burning. Then, feeling that she could not stay in the stove-heated room, she went out, and stood in the s