hing, it grew and
deepened. Even Derrick, who met her so rarely, saw it when he passed her
in the street.

"She is not ill, is she?" he asked Anice once, abruptly.

Anice shook her head.

"No, she is not ill."

"Then she has some trouble that nobody knows about," he said. "What a
splendid creature she is!" impetuously--"and how incomprehensible!"

His eyes chanced to meet Anice's, and a dark flush swept over his face.
He got up almost immediately after and began to pace the room, as was
his habit.

"Next week the crisis will come at the mines," he said. "I wonder how it
will end for me."

"You are still determined?" said Anice.

"Yes, I am still determined. I wish it were over. Perhaps there will be
a Fate in it"--his voice lowering itself as he added this last sentence.

"A Fate?" said Anice.

"I am growing superstitious and full of fancies," he said. "I do
not trust to myself, as I once did. I should like Fate to bear the
responsibility of my leaving Riggan or remaining in it."

"And if you leave it?" asked Anice.

For an instant he paused in his walk, with an uncertain air. But he
shook this uncertainty off with a visible effort, the next moment.

"If I leave it, I do not think I shall return, and Fate will have
settled a long unsettled question for me."

"Don't leave it to Fate," said Anice in a low tone. "Settle it for
yourself. It does not--it is not--it looks----"

"It looks cowardly," he interrupted her. "So it does, and so it is. God
knows I never felt myself so great a coward before!"

He had paused again. This time he stood before her. The girl's grave,
delicate face turned to meet his glance and seeing it, a thought seemed
to strike him.

"Anice," he said, the dark flush rising afresh. "I promised you that if
the time should ever come when I needed help that it was possible you
might give, I should not be afraid to ask you for it. I am coming to you
for help. Not now--some day not far distant. That is why I remind you of
the compact."

"I did not need reminding," she said to him.

"I might have known that," he answered,--"I think I did know it But let
us make the compact over again."

She held out her hand to him, and he took it eagerly.

CHAPTER XXXIV - The Decision

The owners of the Riggan collieries held their meeting. That a person
in their employ should differ from them boldly, and condemn their course
openly, was an extraordinary event; that a young man in the outset