sure?"

"Quite."

The girl led the way back to the landing.

"Tell me," she cried, glancing half shyly up at the strong, smiling
face that contained in its rugged molding the whole meaning of life to
her. "What--why are you down here--now?"

The man's responsive smile was half shamefaced. He shook his head.

"I can't just say. Maybe it's the same reason you're around."

"Oh, I just came along to look at things."

Kars' embarrassment passed. He laughed buoyantly.

"That's how I felt. I needed to look at--things."

"What things?"

The girl pressed him. Her great love demanded confession of those
inner feelings and thoughts a man can so rarely express. Kars resorted
to subterfuge.

"You see, I'm responsible to you and your mother for the outfit. I had
to see nothing's amiss. There won't be a heap of time later, and we
start right out by noon. You can trust Bill most all the time. And
Charley's no fool on the trail. But I had to get around."

"So you got up before the sun to see to it."

Kars laughed again.

"Yes. Same as you."

The girl shook her head.

"Say, it won't do. I'll--I'll be frank. Yes. I was awake. Wide
awake--hours. I just couldn't lie there waiting--waiting. I had to
get around. I had to look at it all--again. Say, John, dear, it's our
great day. The greatest in all life for us. And all this means--means
just a great big whole world. So I stole out of the house, and hurried
along to look at it. Am I foolish? Am I just a silly, sentimental
girl? I--I--couldn't help it. True."

They were standing at the edge of the landing. The speeding waters
were lapping gently at the prows of the moored craft under pressure of
the light morning breeze. The groans of the summer-racked glacier
across the river rumbled sonorously, accentuating the virgin peace of
the world about them. The insect world was already droning its
day-long song, and the cries of the feathered world came from the
distance.

The girl's appeal was irresistible. Kars caught her in his arms, and
his passionate kisses rained on her upturned face. All the ardor of
his strong soul gazed down into her half-closed eyes in those moments
of rapture.

"You couldn't help it? No more could I," he cried, yielding all
restraint before the passion of that moment. "I had to get around. I
had to see the day from its beginning. Same as I want to see it to its
end. Great? Why, it's everything to me--to us,