some of the toughs they couldn't track mean to start the
same game farther east. Some of you ranchers run stock outside the
fences, and I guess one could still find a lonely trail to the American
border."

"Well," said Grant, "I'm glad you told me." He turned to George. "Be
careful, Lansing; you would be an easier mark."

They strolled outside; and after a while George joined Flora, and
sauntered away across the grass with her. It was a clear, still
evening, and the air was wonderfully fresh.

"Though he wouldn't let me thank him, I feel I'm seriously indebted to
your father, Miss Grant," he said. "Our horses were worn out, and the
stock had all scattered when he turned up with the trooper."

"I believe he enjoyed the ride, and the night in the rain," replied
Flora. "You see, he had once to work very hard here, and now that
things have changed, he finds it rather tame. He likes to feel he's
still capable of a little exertion."

"I shouldn't consider him an idle man."

Flora laughed.

"That would be very wrong; but the need for continual effort and the
strain of making ends meet, with the chance of being ruined by a frozen
crop, have passed. I believe he misses the excitement of it."

"Then I gather that he built up this great farm?"

"Yes; from a free quarter-section. He and my mother started in a
two-roomed shack. They were both from Ontario, but she died several
years ago." The girl paused. "Sometimes I think she must have had
remarkable courage, I can remember her as always ready in an emergency,
always tranquil."

George glanced at her as she stood, finely posed, looking out across
the waste of grass with gravely steady eyes, and it occurred to him
that she resembled her mother in the respects she had mentioned.
Nevertheless, he felt inclined to wonder how she had got her grace and
refinement. Alan Grant was forceful and rather primitive.

"Have you spent much of your time here?" he asked.

"No," she answered. "My mother was once a school-teacher, and she must
have had ambitious views for me. When the farm began to prosper, I was
sent to Toronto. After that I went to Montreal, and finally to
England."

"You must be fond of traveling."

"Oh," she said, with some reserve, "I had thought of taking up a
profession."

"And you have abandoned the idea?"

She looked at him quietly, wondering whether she should answer.

"I had no alternative," she said. "I began to realize it after my