m Cleveland, Ohio, the evening
before, and Helen was eager and excited with the prospect of meeting the
people, and witnessing the scenes of which her husband had told her with
so much enthusiasm.

As the Dean had told Patches that day when the cattleman had advanced
the money for the stranger's outfit, the young mining engineer had won a
place for himself amid the scenes and among the people of that western
country. He had first come to the land of this story, fresh from his
technical training in the East. His employers, quick to recognize not
only his ability in his profession but his character and manhood, as
well, had advanced him rapidly and, less than a month before Patches
asked for work at the Cross-Triangle, had sent him on an important
mission to their mines in the North. They were sending him, now, again
to Arizona, this time as the resident manager of their properties in the
Prescott district. This new advance in his profession, together with the
substantial increase in salary which it brought, meant much to the
engineer. Most of all, it meant his marriage to Helen Wakefield. A
stop-over of two weeks at Cleveland, on way West, from the main offices
of his Company in New York, had changed his return to Prescott from a
simple business trip to a wedding journey.

At the home of the Yavapai Club, on top of the hill, a clock above the
plaza, a number of Prescott's citizens, with their guests, had gathered
to watch the beginning of the automobile race. The course, from the
corner in front of the St. Michael hotel, followed the street along one
side of the plaza, climbed straight up the hill, passed the clubhouse,
and so away into the open country. From the clubhouse veranda, from the
lawn and walks in front, or from their seats in convenient automobiles
standing near, the company enjoyed, thus, an unobstructed view of the
starting point of the race, and could look down as well upon the crowds
that pressed against the ropes which were stretched along either side of
the street. Prom a friendly automobile, Helen Manning, with her
husband's field glasses, was an eager and excited observer of the
interesting scene, while Stanford near by was busy greeting old friends,
presenting them to his wife and receiving their congratulations. And
often, he turned with a fond look and a merry word to the young woman,
as though reassuring himself that she was really there. There was no
doubt about it, Stamford Manning, strong and