forty miles instead of
twenty without another mouthful, so far as that was concerned. Ward
was simply behaving in a perfectly normal manner and was not letting
his feelings get the better of him in the slightest degree. As to his
impromptu vacation, he was certainly entitled to it; he ought to have
taken one long ago, he told himself virtuously. He had panned dirt all
day, the Fourth of July; that was last week, he believed. And he had
not made more than two dollars, either. No, he was not behaving
foolishly at all. He had himself well in hand.

Then he flung open the door of his cabin and went white with sheer
astonishment.

"'Lo, Ward!" Billy Louise had been standing behind the door, and she
jumped out at him, laughing, just as if she were ten years old instead
of nearly twenty.

Ward tried to say, "'Lo, Bill," in return, but the words would not
come. His lips trembled too much, and his voice was pinched out in his
throat. His mind refused to tell him what he ought to do; but his arms
did not wait upon his paralyzed mental processes. They shot out of
their own accord, caught Billy Louise, and brought her close against
his pounding heart. Ward was startled and a little shocked at what he
had done, but he held her closer and closer, until Billy Louise was
gasping from something more than surprise.

Next, Ward's lips joined the mutiny against his reason, and laid
themselves upon the parted, panting lips of Billy Louise, as though
that was where they belonged.

Billy Louise had probably not expected anything like that, though of a
truth one can never safely guess at what is in the mind of a girl. She
tried to pull herself free, and when she could make no impression upon
the grip of those arms--they had been growing muscles of iron
manipulating that goldpan, remember!--she very sensibly yielded to
necessity and stood still.

"Stop, Ward! You--I--you haven't any right to--"

"Well, give me the right, then." Ward managed to find voice enough to
make the demand, and then he kissed her many times before he attempted
to say another word. Lord, but he had been hungry for her, these last
three months!

"You'll give me the right, won't you, Wilhemina?" he murmured against
her ear, brushing a lock of hair away with his lips. "You know you
belong to me, don't you? And I belong to you--body and soul. You know
that, don't you? I've known it ever since the world was made. I knew
it when God said, 'Let the