he mother was regarding the pretty face
before her with deep affection. "But I told Murray he'd have to lay
his plans before you--himself. That's why he wants to see you up at
the Fort."

The girl's response came at once, and with an impulsive readiness.

"Then I'll go up, right away," she said. Nor was there the smallest
display of any of the reluctance she really felt.

The girl stood framed in the great gateway of the old stockade. The
oilskin reached almost to her slim ankles. It was dripping and the hat
of the same material which almost entirely enveloped her ruddy brown
head was trailing a stream of water on to her shoulders.

Murray McTavish saw her from the window of his office. He saw her
pause for a few moments and gaze out at the distant view. He
remembered seeing her stand so once before. He remembered well. He
remembered her expressed fears, and all that which had happened
subsequently. The smile on his round face was the same smile it had
been then. Perhaps it was a smile he could not help.

This time he made no move to join her. He waited. And presently she
turned and passed round to the door of the store.

"Mother said you wanted to see me about something. Something you
needed to explain--personally. That so?"

Jessie was standing beside the trader's desk. She was looking down
squarely into the man's smiling face. There was a curious fearlessness
in her regard that was not quite genuine. There was a brusquerie in
her manner that would not have been there had there been any one else
present.

She removed the oilskin hat, and laid it aside on a chair as she spoke,
and the revelation of her beautiful chestnut hair, and its contrast
with her gray eyes, quickened the man's pulses. He was thinking of her
remarkable beauty even as he spoke.

"Say, it's good of you to come along. You best shed that oilskin."

He rose from his desk to assist. But the girl required none of his
help. She slipped out of the garment before he could reach her. He
accepted the situation, and drew forward the chair from the desk at
which Alec had been wont to work.

"You'll sit," he said, as he placed it for her.

But Murray's consideration and politeness had no appeal for Jessie.
She was anxious to be done with the interview.

"That's all right," she said, with a short laugh. "The old hill
doesn't tire me any. I got the school in an hour, so, maybe, you'll
tell me about things right away."