ad loved, and so often vilified together. To him it
seemed strange, yet so natural. To him it seemed that for the first
time he was learning something of the real meaning of life. Never had
he desired a thing which was beyond his power to possess. Doubt had
never been his. Now he knew that doubt was a hideous reality, and the
will of this girl could rob him beyond all hope of all that made his
life worth while.

He drew a deep breath. It was the summoning of the last ounce of
purpose and courage in him. He flung all caution aside, he paused not
for a single word. He became the veriest suppliant at the shrine where
woman reigns supreme.

"Y'see, Jessie, I want to tell you things. I want to tell you I love
you so that nothing else counts. I want to tell you I've been
traipsing up and down this long trail hunting around all the while for
something, and I guessed that something was--gold. So it was. I know
that now. But it wasn't the gold we men-folk start out to buy our
pleasures with. It was the sort of gold that don't lie around in
'placers.' It don't lie anywhere around in the earth. It's on top.
It walks around, and it's in a good woman's heart. Well, say," he went
on, moving towards the tree-trunk, and sitting down at the girl's side,
"I found it. Oh, yes, I found it."

His voice had lowered to an appealing note which stirred the girl to
the depths of her soul. She sat leaning forward. Her elbows were
resting on her knees, and her hands were clasped. Her soft gray eyes
were gazing far out down the naked avenue ahead without seeing. Her
whole soul was concentrated on the radiant vision of the paradise his
words opened up before her.

"I found it," he went on. "But it's not mine--yet. Not by a sight.
Pick an' shovel won't hand it me. The muscles that have served me so
well in the past can't help me now. I'm up against it. I guess I'm
well-nigh beat. I can't get that gold till it's handed me. And the
only hands can pass it my way are--yours."

He reached out, and one hand gently closed over the small brown ones
clasped so tightly together.

"Just these little hands," he continued, while the girl unresistingly
yielded to his pressure. "Say, they're not big to hold so much of the
gold I'm needing. Look at 'em," he added, gently parting them, and
turning one soft palm upwards. "But it's all there. Sure, sure. I
don't need a thing they can't hand me. Not a thing." He closed his
own