n'
earn his monthly pay check. We'll hev to raise vigilantes. I tell you
they'll break us else. Ef Jeff can't see, why, he'll hev to be made
to. Blast their louse-bound souls to hell!"

And Nan welcomed the outburst. Rough, coarse, violent. It did not
matter. What mattered to her was the purpose. The purpose which she
hoped and prayed would help Jeff. She had no thought for themselves.
Their end of the enterprise never came into her considerations. She
was thinking of Jeff. Solely of Jeff--the man she loved better than
her life.

* * * * * *

The change in Elvine was no less marked than it was in Jeff. But it
was a change in a wholly different direction. She was deeply subdued,
even submissive in her attitude. But now after the first crisis and
its accompanying pain, a general relief was apparent. A relief which
anything but indicated the hopelessness which had at the first
overwhelmed her. She was not hopeless. Therein lay the key of the
matter.

From the time when she had passed through those moments of frenzied
despair, after Jeff's return from Orrville, her decision had been taken
with lightning celerity. Her back was to the wall, and she meant to
fight for all she yearned, desired, by every art she possessed. She
knew nothing of the reason which had made her husband return to her.
It was sufficient that he had done so. It gave her the vague, wild
hope she needed, and with all her might she intended to set herself to
the task of winning back her position in his regard.

She was not logical. Had she been, she must have accepted the
alternative of freedom offered her, and, on a liberal allowance,
betaken herself to some selfish, worldly life which might have appealed
to her. No, she was not logical. Had she been, she would never have
loved this man as she now knew better than ever she loved him. She was
not logical, but she had courage. It was the same courage which had
driven her to fight for that which she had desired years ago. She was
going to fight now. And again it was for selfish motives. Only this
time they took the form of the love of the man she| had married.

She set to work from the very start. Her attractions she knew were
great. Jeff must be made to realize them. He must be made to realize
all a woman could mean in this life which was theirs. She would
unobtrusively study his interests to the last degree. His position in
the ranching